


Marked

by NotADragon



Series: Two Silver Lines [1]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-16 13:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14165556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotADragon/pseuds/NotADragon
Summary: Soulmate AU - exactly as advertised.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I continue to apologize for writing RPF. Sorry.

Tessa was late that morning. She just couldn’t drag herself out of bed when her alarm went off. The first snow of the season had fallen last week and somehow the thought of trudging through snow just to go to an ice rink had felt unbearable that morning. So she had hit snooze. Twice. Despite knowing the dressing down that she would get from Marina.

And now she was late and her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. She ignored it while digging around her dresser for a couple of matching hair elastics to slip on her wrist. She didn’t need to open the messages to know exactly what they would say. No matter how many complaints he would send or how many threats he would make about leaving her stranded, Scott wasn’t going anywhere. He would sit outside in his car, waiting on her impatiently, sending endless texts, until she made it downstairs. Did she feel bad about it? A little. It did happen quite a bit. But honestly, it wasn’t like he wasn’t late to nearly every non-5:00am event they went to. Whatever.

Pulling on a sweater, she grabbed her bag and her phone before quietly rushing down the stairs. Her host family was never awake at this hour, and even though they said not to worry about making noise, Tessa still worried. She tried to her best to be quiet with the cupboard doors and the fridge as she gathered her food for the day. Her water bottle was the last thing she needed before she raced on tiptoes to head out the front door.

His headlights were blinding as she rushed down the driveway.

She threw open the passenger door and flung her bag into the back seat before hopping in. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath and looked over at him, ready to judge just how mad at her he was.

He didn’t look mad at all. Instead he just grinned at her. It was almost a smirk really. Something was up.

“You’re not mad at me.”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because I’m late. So you’re late too. Which means Marina is going to yell. And – hey, why aren’t you driving yet? We should be rushing?”

“It’s fine Tess. Everything’s fine.”

Tessa’s eyes narrowed. This was all wrong. She tried to clear the early morning fog from her brain to figure it out. She looked at him. Really looked at him. Looked past the smirk.

“Where’s your coat? It’s below zero. Why are you in a t-shirt?”

“No reason.”

She wasn’t buying it and he wasn’t even trying to sell it well.

He ran his left hand through his hair, mussing it up. She automatically watched the movement, ignoring the small part of her brain that wanted to run her own hands through his hair. Her gaze ran down his arm – oh.

Right where his sleeve ended, a solid black band wrapped around his upper arm, not quite blending into his black shirt. His arm fell back down by his far side, taking the band out of her sight. She kept staring though, as if she could see through his chest to his arm on the other side.

What are you supposed to say when your skating partner, your best friend, the guy you tell yourself you don’t have a crush on, gets his soulmate mark? She knew it was coming. Charlie already got his a couple months back. There was nothing to say really.

It was just a soulmate mark. Just the mark that would match up with (usually) exactly one other person in the world. Someone most people never even met in their lifetimes. A mark unique to just you and them, so it was generally kept hidden from the world. Some people who actually found their soulmate would eventually show them off, leaving them bare for everyone to see. Many kept it hidden even then though, for whatever personal reasons. Not wanting to be ostentatious or brag or maybe just to keep it special.

Tessa reined in her thoughts enough to realize three things at once. One – she had been staring much too long without saying anything and it was definitely making things weird. Two – she had also forgotten to breathe and she gasped in some air to fix her aching lungs. Three – her heart was also aching and she had no idea why. Okay, she had some ideas, but she couldn’t place if it was a hopefully, longing ache, or if it was a despairing, beginning-of-the-end ache. Maybe it was both.

“This morning?” she croaked, before coughing a little to clear her suddenly dry throat.

His grin turned a little sheepish. “Yeah.”

Tessa nodded, trying to process this new information. There wasn’t much to be done with it. It wasn’t like he was going to show it to her, nor could she ask to see it. That just wasn’t done. And even if he did show her, it wasn’t like she had her own to compare. Not that they would match if she did. Surely. Except…

“We should really go Scott…”

She looked down at her lap, but she could feel him watching her.

“Right, yeah.” He shifted into reverse and backed out of the driveway.

They were silent the rest of the car ride, which wasn’t abnormal in and of itself. Tessa was usually pretty sleepy and cranky in the mornings, even if she was wide awake that particular morning. Scott pulled into the rink and parked while Tessa tried to get her brain to slow down.

He reached back and hauled out both of the bags from the backseat. Tessa didn’t move. He opened his door and got out. Tessa didn’t move. He started walking to the rink. Tessa didn’t move.

She watched his shoulder falls in a sigh before he turned around and came back to her. He opened her door. Looked at her expectantly.

Taking a deep breath, she held his gaze. “This doesn’t change anything, right? With us, I mean. It’s still us?”

Scott promptly dropped both bags he was carrying on the ground. He reached in and picked her up out of the car, holding her to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his neck. He lowered her just enough so her toes found purchase on the ground.

“Oh Tess.” One hand ran up and down her back soothingly. She relaxed into him without at all relaxing her grip on him. “It’s always going to be you and me.”

He was lying to her. He didn’t know that and it probably wasn’t going to be. It was never going to be forever, it was just too unlikely. His soulmate mark was just one more reminder of the inevitable. That one day, they wouldn’t be skating anymore. That all this would be done. That they would have lives outside of each other. Lives with other people. But for today, she just wanted to pretend the lie was real. That he actually knew what he couldn’t know. That it really would always be him and her.

Their breathing synced. She felt herself calming down a little. She put the panic back in the box and tried to shove it back away in the closet in her mind under a pile of coats. She didn’t have time for that. And she didn’t really need it anyways today. Today it really was just her and him.

“We’re really late now,” she pointed out.

“It’s okay T,” Scott said, pulling back to drop a kiss on the side of her head. “I’m just going to blame it on you.”

“Hey!” she laughed, letting go of him to punch his arm. His bare right arm. “Partners don’t throw each other to the wolves.”

“They do when the wolves are Russian,” he muttered, picking up their bags.

As they headed inside to face the music, Tessa tried to let herself believe nothing would change.

 

***

 

Things changed. Things stayed exactly the same. As Tessa sat on the arm of some couch in some basement at some party, she tried to figure out how it was that both of those things were true.

Things stayed exactly the same. Scott was still her best friend. They still spent every day training together. They still had all their inside jokes that made other people uncomfortable to be around them too much. He still refused to do a Hall & Oates exhibition number. He still snuck up behind her when she wasn’t paying attention to wrap her up in a hug. He still went out with the skaters most weekends while she stayed home. He still flirted with girls who weren’t her. He still said it was just them before they skated.

Things changed. It felt weird to grip his arm band during lifts. Her thoughts stretched past the Vancouver Olympics now, to what happened after. She started pre-emptively wearing more long-sleeve bodysuits to dance classes. Her legs hurt more. Her heart hurt more. Girls ran their hands down his left arm more now while they flirted back with him. They were skating better than ever.

She shouldn’t have agreed to go out that night. But Scott had said he was worried about her. That he thought she was holing herself up more than normal. That he wanted to her have some fun. That it would be fun. So she had caved. Let him pick her up and bring her to the party.

It was not fun watching some girl toy with the edge of his arm band.

Fedor asked if she wanted a ride home. She said yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are shockingly few soulmate aus written for these two? I don't get it. And despite still feeling bad about writing RPF, I subscribe to the "if there is a story you want to read that isn't written, you have to write it yourself" philosophy and I always want more soulmate fics. 
> 
> No idea how long this will be. I have various scenes thought up though so there will be a few chapters. Also life is busy and I have another WIP so I make no guarantees on when this will be updated. But if you like, I live on tumblr mobile with asks and messages open so find me there: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t there last night. She knew it wasn’t because she had taken an extra long bath to soak and she would have noticed. But it was there now.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed, carefully holding her arm in front of her face. Her housecoat had fallen to the ground, forgotten, when she had glimpsed the silver as she was putting it on.

Her soulmate mark.

It circles her whole arm. That’s the most surprising part she thinks. She can’t remember seeing or reading about marks that go all the way around before. It surely has happened, this couldn’t be the first time. But it is not the norm.

The whole piece is a shimmering silver, flickering against her pale, pale skin as she twists her arm in her crappy bedroom lighting. The focal point is a maple leaf. It’s about the size of a toonie. It isn’t filled in with colour, but the outline is traced twice. A double lined maple leaf. A maple leaf in a slightly larger maple leaf? Something like that. And it is the double line theme that continues around her arm. Two parallel lines stretch from the left-most tip of the leaf to the symmetrical right-most tip. Like a bracelet with a leaf in the center.

The powers that be in the universe that gave Tessa her mark also conspired to give it to her on a rare day off from training. Instead of having to rush to cover it up to get to the rink, Tessa laid back in bed, running her fingers over and over it.

She tried not to think too much about what it must mean in terms of who had the match. There was no point in going down that road. She couldn’t control fate. She might never meet her soulmate. But whoever they were, they had the same mark on them probably already. And the mark meant something to both of them.

At least part of the mark seemed easy to decipher. A maple leaf. Easy. Canadian. Even more so for her as a Canadian athlete who wears it as a logo to competitions and sees it on her flag whenever they make the podium. Most likely, that means her soulmate is also Canadian. Not that that is a small pool of people. Or that they necessarily have to be Canadian. They could just really like trees? Not that she particularly liked trees.

She tried not to focus on who it didn’t rule out. She tried really hard not to think about how he could also have a maple leaf. She tried. And she failed.

The bracelet lines make less sense. Her first thought was that they were just artistic. But really, full arm marks are so rare that it wouldn’t really make sense for them to just be aesthetic.

Eventually, her stomach objected to her choice to postpone breakfast in favour of staring at her arm. Before she dared to venture downstairs, she knew she wanted to cover it up. After Scott had got his last year, she had gone to the mall to pick up a couple arm bands. Just so she had them whenever she needed them. Whenever had arrived.

She had a white one, a black one, and a beige one that didn’t quite match her skin tone. She put the beige one on anyways and then switched her pajama tank top for a sweater. She had a costume fitting this next week, so she would ask for several custom arm bands to be made in exactly the same colour as her skin. Just like the mesh on her outfits, except the arm bands needed to be opaque. All skaters needed them at some point though so she knew it wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Her host mom was already awake and moving around in the kitchen. She knew what Tessa was like in the mornings though and didn’t try to make any small talk. She was grateful. She was still looking forward to turning 18 though when her real parents would let her get her own apartment. It wasn’t that much longer to wait. Six more months. With a bowl of granola and some yogurt, Tessa retreated back to her room.

She figured she should probably tell someone. It was kind of a big deal. A private thing, but still a big thing. Her immediate shortlist was her mom, her sister, and Scott. She wasn’t going to be home until Christmas though, and it didn’t really feel like a thing she wanted to tell her mom or sister over a phone call. Also, she didn’t even know if she was going to let them see it yet. Jordan had shown Tessa her mark, but had sworn her to secrecy. They had never talked about it except for that one day. Reciprocity wasn’t a given with soulmate marks though and Tessa wasn’t sure she wanted to share it.

As for Scott… well, if it was any other big news, he would immediately be the one she told. That was just part of being best friends and partners. This wasn’t normal news though. He had kind of told her about his right away. Basically first thing that morning, if she was generous with how she defined “told”. So she knew she should probably tell him, but the thought of telling him about her own tied her insides in knots. What was she even supposed to say?

What if he asked to see her mark? He wouldn’t, probably. She hoped. She had never once asked to see his. Hadn’t even hinted at it. But Scott was as open as she was reserved. She wouldn’t put it past him to tease her somehow or goad her into showing him. Except he wouldn’t, because this was too serious for that and surely he would realize that. She was pretty sure he would know better. Because if he asked, Tessa didn’t know how she could refuse him. And that would definitely, certainly, totally wreck everything.

She could imagine it. How his face would fall when he realized they didn’t match. Or worse, if he wasn’t upset about it at all. If he just admired the mark without caring that it didn’t match his. Because those were the only two possible outcomes. They had to be. She wouldn’t let herself think about the chance that there could be another possibility (that he would already recognize everything about her mark, having seen it on himself every day for a year). It was too remote. And it too could wreck everything.

Their skating had to come first. It just had to. They didn’t talk about any alternative (except for that one time when they had and had both agreed that skating came first). So she decided not to tell him. Not yet. She knew he would find out sooner or later. It wasn’t like she could hide behind long sleeves forever, especially when they sometimes shared change rooms or went to the lake together or did any number of things where it would be weird to keep one arm fully covered. But she didn’t have to tell him, or anyone, today.

Instead, she spent her day off hiding away by herself. She had planned to go to the mall, maybe buy a new dress for one of the galas or dinners they always ended up at. That could wait. She mostly kept the mark covered, just in case someone walked in. Not that her host family would ever walk in without knocking and waiting for a response. But she kept it covered, except for every few minutes when she would slide her arm out of the sleeve, slide the band down, and just stare.

Finally, she had her soulmate mark. All she was missing was her soulmate.

 

***

 

She dressed carefully the next morning. She had even set her alarm ten minutes early and didn’t hit snooze, just to make sure she had time in case something went wrong somehow. She started with the beige arm band again. Then she put on a sweater, but not one that was too tight. She didn’t want the outline of the band showing. And not one with a slouchy neckline. She didn’t want anything slipping down her shoulder and showing. Today was a few hours at the rink, school, and then a few more hours at the rink. She packed another sweater to change into for school, making sure it met the same requirements for total coverage and hiding. She’d just have to take extra care changing in the locker room, using a stall for once instead of just normal changing by her locker.

Tessa felt organized. Prepared. In control. It was all going to be okay.

She had her own car now, so she drove herself to the rink and then to school. It made more sense, especially since Scott wasn’t in high school anymore, but she still missed their quiet morning car rides. She beat him to the rink. It was the new normal. It turned out he only was on time before because he didn’t want to make her late. Somehow he had no qualms about her wasting her time by herself though when he is late alone.

She was laced up and on the ice before Scott walked into the building. Tessa knew she should be using the time to run through step sequences, but she was too keyed up to focus. Too aware of the band on her arm. So she just stroked around the rink until he finally skated out to meet her.

His arms wrapped around her waist from behind, almost crushing her to him. “Good morning T,” he sang right against her ear. She didn’t let herself react. This was perfectly normal, and it wouldn’t be perfectly normal to shiver at the sound of your skating partner’s voice.

She tapped his hands, an indicator she wanted to be let go. He knew better than to expect her to talk in the mornings. First, he dropped a kiss on her cheek and then he did indeed let go. Tessa immediately took his right hand in her left. She gave it a squeeze to say everything was fine without having to speak.

Igor’s voice cut across the ice. “No touching step sequence. Now.”

They sighed in unison. The week had begun.

Mornings with Igor were pleasantly monotonous. Sure, nothing was ever good enough for him, but that just meant they kept doing the same step sequence over and over until he was almost satisfied. It was just the right level of concentration for Tessa in the morning. And soon she was engrossed enough that it was all she was thinking about.

“Fine. Now lifts.” It took the better part of an hour to get that ‘fine’ from Igor. Tessa was ready for the change.

“Original dance. Start with the straight line lift.”

They skated down to one end of the rink, nodded to each other, and began.

It started fine. He picked her up. They posed. They shifted. She snaked one arm back around his back.

And then something was wrong. She just knew. His grip on her leg tightened. She was staring face down at the ice. It was a terrible time for something to be wrong.

But the whole lift only lasted a few seconds and Scott tilted her so one skate touched back on the ground. But something was still wrong.

Instead of curving with the choreography, Scott gripped her forearm. Pulled her backwards the way they had just come.

“We need a minute,” he growled, cutting Igor off before he could start.

Tessa didn’t know what had just happened, but she followed along. Scott’s hand slid down her wrist and took her hand in a death grip.

Their skate guards were neatly placed on the boards, just like Tessa liked them. He snatched both pairs with his free hand, holding them out for her to take. Without stopping, they put their guards on while they walked. One step, one guard. Then the other. Scott led her past the dressing rooms, around the curve to the Zamboni room. Flinging open the door, he stepped aside to let her walk through first. Yeah, cause she really wanted to hang out the Zamboni room. Great.

He shut the door firmly behind him and leaned against it, arms crossed, staring her down.

“So?”

It was a venomous accusation. Tessa just didn’t know of what. So she didn’t respond.

“What the fuck Tess?!”

Okay, now she was getting pissed. First he almost botched a lift. Dragged her over here. Yelled at her without explanation. No.

“What the fuck Tess,” She parroted back. “What the hell Scott? You tell me. You can’t just freak out in the middle of a lift. You could have dropped me. What on earth is your problem?”

She watched him closely while she spoke. Watched his eyes flare a little when she swore. Watched his head automatically shake when she said “dropped”. He would never drop her. They both knew that. Watched the incoherent anger drain away to be replaced by a sadness she couldn’t explain.

Scott stepped forward, closing the distance between them. She half expected him to hug her. But he didn’t. He just reached out one hand and clasped firmly right on her arm band. On her soulmate mark.

Oh.

“How?” She barely breathes out the word. How did he even know?

He shook his head, almost in disgust. “You think I don’t feel every inch of your arm pressed against my back every single time?”

But it was under her sweater. She couldn’t believe that he could feel that small difference in bulk. Except she could. Because she noticed everything every single time he touched her, lifted her, hugged her, held her. She should have known she couldn’t hide it from him.

“Were you even going to tell me Tess?” His voice was so small. Almost broken. None of the earlier anger left at all.

“Of course.” It was not a lie. She would have told him. Eventually.

“But you didn’t just get it this morning?”

She would have been surprised he could guess that if he was anyone but Scott.

“Yesterday.”

“Can I –” he stopped when she flinched. “No. Not that. Can I just see the band?”

Tessa exhaled. Thank god.

Scott finally let go of her arm so Tessa could pull off her sweater. She was in a sports bra, so it wasn’t risqué or anything. Except for the part where they were hiding from the world in essentially a closet. A big closet. But still.

She focused a little too closely on her breathing, making sure it stayed even.  He gently held her left hand, lifting her arm up. His other hand brushed up her arm, stopping just above her elbow. Still well below the beginning of the arm band.

He looked up, eyes soft. “Is it as beautiful as you always imagined?”

“More so than I could have dreamed.”

She broke his gaze and pulled her arm back to put her sweater back on. It was cold. It was a rink after all. And this was weird, even by their standards, being shirtless in the Zamboni room.

It was easier to speak while the sweater muffled her as she pulled it on. “I don’t really want anyone to know for a while.” She tugged the hem into place. “I’m going to keep it covered at the rink, okay?”

He nodded. “What did Jordan say? Did she make you show her over Skype?”

“Uh, I didn’t tell her actually. I think I’m just going to wait to tell her in person over Christmas.”

“Oh T,” Scott reached up, running his hands up and down both her arms. Like normal. Except for the extra layer over part of her arm. “Why aren’t you telling her? You know this is a good thing, right?”

“Is it?” The words slipped out before she could stop them. That was it though. The thing that had been in her head for a day. For longer, really. A year. Since Scott had got his probably. Since everything and nothing changed. Were the marks really a good thing? She wasn’t so sure.

He pulled her close, dropping a light kiss against her neck before resting his head in the crook of her shoulder.

“Of course it’s a good thing. Why would it be anything else?”

Tessa could think of a lot of reasons it might not be a good thing, including that she might never even find her soulmate. And also, that she might.

“Nothing changes, right?” She tried to keep her tone away from melancholy and towards breezy. She didn’t think she succeeded.

“Why would it?” Scott stepped back and laced her fingers though his. “Come on, let’s go get yelled at.”

He bravely led her back out to face Igor. Meryl and Charlie had shown up so it was going to be a public flogging. As Igor screamed about wasted ice time, Tessa thought a bit too much about how Scott had deflected her last question instead of reassuring her. Yeah, she really wasn’t sure her mark was a good thing.

 

***

 

Except for the seamstress (who was too professional to comment), Tessa kept her mark hidden at the rink until Christmas. In fact, until dress rehearsal right before Canadian Championships, she managed to hide it from the skaters and the coaches. She had the locker room to herself as she got changed, but she knew when she walked out in her free dance dress that it was all over. She had it covered, the arm band almost a perfect match to her skin. Fine from a distance, but still visible up close.

Marina’s eyes zapped to it immediately, instantly alert to any little change from the norm. She didn’t say anything though. Just pursed her lips as Tessa stepped onto the ice. She fell backwards into Scott’s hold, in starting position.

“It’s okay Tess. It’s going to be fine.”

And it was.

Until the music stopped. And she came back to reality. And she could hear the whispers. Skaters standing at the boards, all looking at her. And at them.

She avoided making eye contact with anyone as they skated over to Marina for feedback. She almost crushed Scott’s hand while actively trying to ignore everyone else. She didn’t owe anyone an announcement or an explanation. But she couldn’t help but hear.

“Do you think they match?”

She didn’t know who asked. Didn’t hear the hushed response. She just nodded back to Marina was saying despite missing what it was she had said. Grabbed her water bottle with her right hand. Curled her left side farther into Scott, hiding her arm band against his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this was longer and more angst-filled than I intended. Hope it was not too much.
> 
> Anyways, I think my approximate implied timeline is right here if anyone is paying close attention for matching up lifts, routines, dresses, and competitions to the schedule. I might be a year off age-wise though? Not sure. 
> 
> Everything I said in the first chapter notes still applies, and now that this chapter is written I have to work on real life stuff for some time. But if you are looking for me, my tumblr is: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	3. Chapter 3

Gold was exactly as good as she had dreamed. But she underestimated just how good it was going to be to get that Olympic gold on home ice. The crowd had been with them since their compulsory dance, and that was hardly the usual state of affairs. As important as the compulsory was, watching the same steps over and over usually bored audiences. But not when Tessa and Scott took the ice for their tango romantica. The crowd was with them from the beginning and it was their time to shine. And they did.

Then their original dance. Clean. Electric. All she could have wanted.

And then their free. Perfection. Or so it seemed from the audience reaction. Never mind that they messed up something as basic as the end pose. It was more than enough. They dominated. They won. They climbed atop the podium while the crowd roared. Oh Canada had never been sung so loudly. Scott’s hand held hers as the maple leaf flag rose in front of them. In that moment, she had no idea how she would ever come down from the high.

But it didn’t take long for her to find out exactly how. The interviews had begun even before their gold was set in stone, and continued after the medal ceremony. They were likely to continue for weeks. Olympic ice dance champions. First to win gold at their first Olympics. First to win on home ice. Who wouldn’t want to interview them?

Tessa had long lost count of how many interviews they had done. She was ready to head back to the village. Change. Shower. Sleep. But she had her interview smile on, Scott by her side, and a fabulously heavy accessory around her neck as she nodded along to Scott’s answer. They automatically traded off questions so she tuned in carefully for what the interviewer would ask next since it was going to be hers to answer.

“So you two have been together since you were kids. And you’re best friends you say. But are you also soulmates? You must have checked and you certainly looked like you could be out there on the ice.”

She was going to throw up. Fuck.

She may have entirely lost track of what interview they were on, but she knew whoever this woman was, she wasn’t Canadian. The Canadian press was never that invasive, that direct. No one was.

Sure, their families had asked them both over the past few years. They just told them it didn’t matter. Skating was what mattered. Reminded them of Scott’s girlfriend whenever he had one. (There was an unspoken agreement among everyone to not mention anyone Tessa was with. It was in everyone’s best interest.)

Sure, their friends had asked them separately over drinks. Mostly leading questions, trailing off suggestively accompanied by ridiculous eyebrow waggling. Those were easy to skate past by ordering another round of drinks or suggesting a game of pool.

Sure, Tessa had read articles and seen pieces that had suggested they could be soulmates. But even the ones that had interviewed them only asked about their friendship and their partnership. At most, they were asked if they were actually dating.

But this? This was intrusive as all fuck. Well beyond the bounds of normal polite conversation. You didn’t just ask if people were soulmates or not. It just wasn’t done. And Tessa liked social norms and expectations. They were comforting. They gave her set scripts to follow when she was actually introverted by nature. She had nothing for this though.

But she needed something. They were on camera. Her smile was slipping despite her best effort. She clutched Scott’s hand harder, nails digging into his skin, while her brain raced. How could she spin this?

“You know, we love telling love stories. They just seem to resonate so well. It’s fun for us and it certainly seemed like the audience loved it today too. Really, such an invested audience is all we could want. We’re so grateful for how everyone here has been so supportive of our performances.”

Her answer wasn’t even close to the question she had been asked. The answer to “are you soulmates?” is not “the audience is nice”. She knew that. But Tessa was banking that even as gauche as this interview was, she wouldn’t be willing to push for a direct answer if Tessa remained pleasant. These were supposed to be fluff pieces after all, run on local news networks around the world. Not exactly hard hitting journalism or in-depth coverage.

“The crowd certainly loved you tonight,” the woman agreed.

And then, bless him, some press manager signalled to wrap up the interview.

“Congratulations again on your win, both of you.”

They thanked her, and she walked away with her cameraperson, giving Scott and Tessa a short reprieve. She dropped Scott’s hand, flexing her fingers to get some feeling back. His right arm snaked around her waist instead to rest gently against her hip.

There was still a room full of people around them. People with cameras and microphones, and also just eyes and ears. They know enough to be careful. Scott leaned in close, keeping a show smile on so he could talk through his teeth like they do while performing.

“If anyone else fucking asks that, I’m going to snap their microphone in two.”

She didn’t react. Couldn’t egg him on. Their next interviewer was walking towards them. Smiling at the approaching man, she barely whispered loud enough for Scott to hear.

“Save it for later.”

Despite seething herself, she couldn’t let Scott go off the rails. They just had to get through a few more interviews.

 

He had to save it until much later really. They survived the interviews. But then there were family and friends. And then Canada House, which was thankfully solely for Canadians (who really were oh so polite). They got to relax. He had a beer. Then another. She had a gin and tonic. But they were never alone. They spent the night surrounded by people. People who loved them and wanted to celebrate with them and Tessa was grateful for it truly. But there was a part of her that just couldn’t shake off that interview. And from the tension in his shoulders, she knew Scott was still fuming. She had to get him out of there.

She made an excuse to the snowboarder she was chatting to. The girl let her go without fuss, and Tessa made her way over to her family. Let them know she was going to head to bed. That she would see them tomorrow. Received another Virtue family group hug.

Then she glided across the room, cutting through the crowds, to get to the bar. She positioned herself closer to the male bartender’s end and waited. She fiddled conspicuously with her medal, careful to not let it touch the sticky bar top. Sure enough, the bartender hurried right over to her after popping open another couple beers.

“Congrats. What can I get you to celebrate?”

“A bottle of whiskey?” She smiled sweetly and perhaps batted her eyelashes once or twice. She wasn’t sure it would work.

He blinked. Then shrugged. “We were told medalists drink for free. I suppose that wasn’t limited to single drinks.”

“Oh thank you,” she said, reaching forward to pat his arm. “That’s so kind.”

She swore he blushed before he turned away to grab a bottle off the top shelf.

“A whole room celebrating us and you’re off flirting with the bartender.” Scott emphasised the ‘us’ as he hissed his complaint against her ear.

“Chill out and don’t wreck this.” She transfer her medal to one hand so she could squeeze his leg reassuringly below bar.

The bartender had reappeared with a bottle of crown royal. “For the medalist,” he said, eyeing Scott suspiciously. Scott saluted the bartender with his own gold.

“We appreciate it,” Tessa beamed at the bartender, taking the bottle from him. She turned and tilted her head towards a back door.

Finally catching on, Scott placed one hand against her lower back, guiding her out in front of him. She wore her interview smile until they got back to their building. She kept them walking quickly the whole time to avoid being stopped by any of the hundreds of people out and about who were liable to recognize them. Because they had just won Olympic gold. Tessa hated that anything was wrecking that feeling today.

She didn’t bother to try speaking to him on the way, afraid he would go off before they were behind closed doors. He was better in recent years, not as much of a livewire as he had been a few years ago. But that didn’t mean he was moderate or controlled yet. He was cocky still. And hotheaded. And emotional, but that was actually part of what she loved about him. He couldn’t hide his feelings from anyone and rarely bothered trying. He only attempted it for them, for their careers.

They automatically went to her room as it was closer (by four doors). She unlocked the door and let him storm through first, locking it behind her. Scott immediately started pacing the small room, one hand tugging hard on his hair.

“Okay, first things first. Give me your medal.” Tessa tucked the whiskey under one arm so she could hold out a free hand expectantly.

“Why?” he asked without breaking his stride.

“It’s collateral in case you start punching walls or something equally stupid.”

He stopped and glared at her.

She raised both eyebrows.

He huffed.

He handed over his medal.

With a satisfied hum, Tessa took it and put both medals on top of her dresser. She really would hold it hostage and he knew it.

Her bed was the one pressed up against the window. Scott collapsed onto it, legs dangling off the side, head tilted back against the glass. Tessa grabbed two clean glasses and poured what was probably too much whiskey in both. Careful not to spill, she sat down beside him, handing him one glass. She tucked her feet up and he draped his free arm around her. His hand curled around her arm band.

He tipped his glass in her direction. “To us?”

“To thirteen years and Olympics gold.”

They clinked and drank.

“I can’t believe the nerve of that woman.”

“I thought I was going to be sick.”

“You were brilliant. Even if your nails drew blood. You never cease to impress me T.”

“Wait, what?” She grabbed his hand, glass and all, to examine it. Sure enough there was still a red crescent mark. “I’m sorry, you should have stopped me.”

Scott shook his head. “Honestly, I needed the pain to keep me from doing something stupid.”

“It’s not going to be the last time, is it?” she asked quietly.

“No,” he confirmed. “It will probably just get worse.”

As mad as she had been all day, now that she finally could rail, she found that she was just too exhausted. The fight had left her. She took another drink. He matched her. Their glasses emptied.

“You really should have just brought the bottle over here T.”

“I didn’t plan ahead. This is as far as I planned.”

Scott took one for the team and got up to grab the bottle off her dresser. She watched him gaze at the medals, side by side, before returning to his spot.

“So let’s make a plan.” He uncapped the bottle and poured them each another generous glass.

Plans were good. Tessa liked plans. She couldn’t control everything, but she could plan excessively.

“We’re Olympics champions, but we aren’t world champions. So that’s number one.”

Scott gave her a look. “Isn’t ‘Olympic champions’ kind of better anyways?”

“Well, duh. But I still want worlds. And I know you do too.”

“Right. That’s in a few weeks. And then… Olympic champions again?”

“Sochi?”

“I’m in if you are.”

“Four more years.” She said it solemnly. A vow.

They clinked their glasses again. They had a plan.

“And maybe more than one world championship?” she added slyly. “Like two or three.”

Scott laughed. “They’re going to hate us.”

“Let them. They can’t deny how good we are.”

He let his fingers roam over her arm band. His thumb stroked down the center, right over where she knew her maple leaf was. Two fingers traced the middle around her arm, right over top of the bracelet lines he didn’t know about. “We’re the best,” he replied softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you early thanks to illness and procrastination. It's so sweet that y'all seem to be liking this? Like really. Hugs and kisses to all of you. (The next chapter will absolutely not be as fast as this one though, this is your warning). The time skip of several years to the Olympics was brought to you by me not wanting to write the angst and despair of surgery number one because I don't hate myself.   
> Anyways, wasn't Tessa's 2010 OD dress fabulous? I love that skirt. 
> 
> I'm generally around, specifically on tumblr here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I spent like 45 seconds on google. This probably bears no resemblance to the timeline or treatment after surgery. Don't confuse fanfics with medical advice. This is not medical advice.

“I’m so proud of you T!” Scott lifted her off the ice and twirled around in lazy circles.

Tessa rolled her eyes, but held on anyways making no attempt to stop him.

“Are you going to do this after every practice for the rest of our careers?”

“Maybe,” he grinned. “Maybe I need to remind you more just how spectacular you are. How strong you are. How I could never have wished for a better partner.”

“Okay, now you’re just being a sap.”

“You made it through a whole practice without a single break! Not even three months after surgery. I think that deserves some sappiness.”

Tessa just shook her head. What a sentimental idiot. She took his hand as they skated off the ice together.

She made it to the closest bench, not bothering to head all the way to the locker room. She desperately needed her skates off. Yanking the laces loose, she eased her feet out. It felt so damn good.

Scott hovered over her with both of their water bottles. She took hers from him and patted the bench beside her. He sat. She dropped her head onto his shoulder. Her empty hand settled on his leg. He covered her hand with his own.

“Thanks.”

“For what kiddo?”

“For sticking with me,” Tessa said softly.

He picked up her hand and kissed it twice. “I would never abandon you,” he replied gravely.

“Except for right now,” she teased, bumping against his shoulder.

“Oh shit. Yeah, I’ve got to go shower or I’m going to be late for dinner. Are you good?”

She smiled reassuringly. “Yeah, of course.”

“Are you at least going to do something big tonight to celebrate finishing practice?”

“Totally,” she laughed. “I have a date planned with an ice bath. And then maybe if I get lucky, I’ll curl up in bed with Lizzie and Darcy.”

Scott laughed as he stood up. “Those are some wild Thursday night plans.”

“As wild as my legs can handle tonight.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. He gave her hand a squeeze before letting it go.

She nodded and took a long drink of water as he walked away. Gathering up her skates, she gingerly made her way back to the women’s locker room. She might have overdone it. Maybe. But if they wanted to salvage what was left of the season, she knew she had no choice. The whole point of the surgery had been so that she could compete. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. And ice bath was exactly what she needed.

 

It was. After she got over the initial sinking into it anyways. But afterwards, Tessa needed every blanket she owned to warm herself up again. Before she let herself sink into bed, she did everything she knew she needed done before the morning. Once she got under those covers, there was nothing that would make her get up again. So she washed up her earlier dishes and rinsed some grapes. She set the grapes and a glass of water on her nightstand next to her phone. She replaced her workout clothes in her gym bag, throwing the old ones into the laundry hamper.

From the shelves in her living room, she pulled out her copy of Pride & Prejudice. Collecting both throw blankets from her couch, she shut off all the living room lights and double checked the front door was locked (even though it always was) before returning to her bedroom. Putting a second tv in her bedroom had definitely been the right call to help with her recovery. There was a 70% chance she wouldn’t make it to the Mrs. Darcy scene before she fell asleep and her bed was much comfier than the couch.

With the dvd in, her hair down, and her phone charging on the nightstand, Tessa could finally allow herself to crawl under the covers. Grabbing a grape, she hit play. She sunk back into her pile of pillows. Pulled the blankets higher. Snuggled deep into her mattress. Hummed along as the familiar score started up.

After finishing her snack, she doubled checked she had three alarms set for the morning and turned off her lamp. The last thing she remembered as her heavy eyes closed was Elizabeth and Darcy circling each other in the ballroom while the rest of the world faded away.

 

As she was startled awake, her immediate instinct was to violently throw her hands over her ears. What on earth. It took her brain a few seconds to catch up and recognize the sound and the source. Her phone.

Her eyes adjusted to the low light coming from the tv. Grabbing her phone off the nightstand, she checked the callar display. _Scott Moir._ Oh, she hoped he had an emergency or she might just kill him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing T, I just didn’t want to scare you.”

“What?! You terrified me by waking me up.”

“Oh. Were you sleeping?”

“YES!”

“Oh. Sleepy Tess. I’m sorry. I’m in your living room.”

“You’re what now?!”

“Tessie. Don’t be mad Tessie.”

Groaning, Tessa sat up and looked towards her door. Sure enough there was light peaking in from underneath. She rubbed her eyes with one hand.

“This is not why you have my spare key,” she growled.

“But Tess, it’s good. This way you don’t have to even get out of bed.”

She had no idea what was going on, but it was clear she wasn’t getting back to sleep until she dealt with it. With a sigh, Tessa turned on her lamp then promptly recoiled from the light. Scott was a dead man.

“Fine, come here then.” She hung up her phone and put it back on her nightstand. There was a hair elastic sitting there. To avoid dealing with whatever disaster her hair had become, she threw it in a messy bun. She could hear his footsteps, loud and entirely lacking any grace, come closer to her room.

He cracked the door open and poked his head halfway in. “Tess?”

“Just get in here already you idiot.”

“I didn’t want to wake you.” Scott stepped into the room. He looked good, in dark wash jeans and a red button down shirt. He also looked flushed and his eyes were glassy.

“Then you shouldn’t have called. Are you drunk?”

“Please don’t be mad at me T. I don’t need anyone else mad at me.”

Tessa was starting to catch on to what had happened in spite of her sleepy state. He’d gotten into a fight with his girlfriend. Again.

She slid over to the far side of the bed to make space. He immediately filled it, collapsing on top of her duvet.

It was a couple of minutes before either of them said anything. Tessa figured he was the one who needed to talk, so he could start.

“I’m not skating to this.”

She looked at him confused. He nodded to the tv. The home screen of the dvd was still on, with the theme song playing softly.

“So you keep saying. But one day, I’ll get you to agree.” She found the remote under the covers beside her and turned it off. She held out the remote and he took it, placing it on the nightstand.

“I had a few drinks,” he admitted sheepishly.

“I managed to figure that out actually.”

“Did I tell you how proud I was of you today?”

“Yes Scott, you did.”

“Good. Cause I’m so proud of you, T. I really am.”

She reached out to ruffle his hair, not entirely kindly nor particularly softly. “If you came over here just to tell me that, I’ll kill you.”

“How are your legs?”

“They’re fine, Scott,” she huffed.

“Hey,” he glared at her, as seriously as he could manage while drunk. “No lies. We don’t lie.”

She took his hand, tracing soothing circles on the back of it. “They’re okay. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Do they hurt right now?”

“Yeah, they ache a little.”

“Let me help,” he said as he jumped off the bed. He jumped back up on the foot of the bed. Grabbing the covers, he yanked all 5 layers (sheet, duvet, blanket, blanket, blanket) off of her. Before she could start yelling, he grabbed her legs and pulled them onto his lap. As much as would fit anyways. He had also pulled her off and away from the pillows she had been propped up on. She pressed up on her elbows to watch what the hell he was doing.

Tessa’s pajamas were just cotton pajama shorts, a tank top, and the arm band she had forgotten to take off, leaving both legs almost fully bare. With both hands, Scott started massaging her right calf. His fingers were soft, not digging, just attempting to sooth her muscles with a too gentle touch.

After a minute, he looked up at her. “Better?”

She hummed her assent. It was. And very little of it had to do with him actually making effective progress on her calves. Tessa reached back and pulled a pillow down for her head. Eyes closed, she let him work.

He kept going for another minute before switching and giving her left leg the same attention. Up and down her calf working in small circles and long lines.

His thumb brushed over the scar left from the incision. She opened her eyes as he brushed over her other scar. Then he leaned down and softly kissed her scars. First the left leg. Then the right. Feather light kisses. She shuddered.

“You know,” he began, sitting back upright. “If I were a better person, I wouldn’t ask you to keep skating. I wouldn’t put you through this. I hate that you suffer and I can’t do a damn thing to make it better.”

“You’ve never asked to me keep skating. And it’s not your decision. It’s mine. I want this. I want to win just as much as you do. I want to skate just as much as you do. And the price is worth it. But it’s late Scott. We should sleep. Do you need to stay here tonight? How did you even get here?”

“I took a cab. Do you mind if I stay?”

“Of course, but you can’t take any of the blankets to sleep on the couch. I need them all. It’s true,” she insisted when he gave her a look like she was being ridiculous. “I’m cold. Anyways, you have to sleep here with me, but my sheets are much too nice to be wrecked by jeans.”

“You and your thread counts,” he muttered. He stood up and started stripping off his jeans. Tessa didn’t watch. Instead, she rearranged the pillows. Half for him, half for her. She made sure she took the soft ones and he took the firm ones. She pulled all the blankets back up over herself and looked up to see Scott was down to just his boxers and black arm band. She shifted over closer to the wall and he slid under the blankets.

Resting sideways facing him, she finally broached the subject. “What did you two fight about tonight?” She took out her bun and handed the elastic to him. He dutifully placed it on the nightstand.

Scott sighed. Before answering, he ran his fingers through her now loose hair, untangling it. Organized it to fall neatly behind her. Brushed a stray strand off her neck. “The same fucking things as always. She doesn’t understand why I won’t show her my mark. She says it won’t matter that we don’t match, and I’ve seen hers, so apparently I’m fucking required to show her mine. And when I refused then she started in on the other thing…”

“Me?” Tessa said resigned. It was always her, she knew that. Not that she even had all that much to do with his girlfriends.

“Us,” he corrected. “Like I’m supposed to not prioritize my whole career, my whole life, just because she’s paranoid that we have something going on.”

Tessa said nothing. She absolutely did not point out that it would be hard to consider anyone paranoid about them when he mostly naked in her bed. About how much more ‘paranoid’ his girlfriend would be if she had seen him kissing Tessa’s legs. She kept her mouth shut. As usual.

“I think we might be broken up again. Who knows?”

“So you went to the bar?”

“There was a game on anyways. But yeah. And my place was far from the bar. So I came here. And now I’m sleepy. Are you ready to sleep Tess?”

“Considering I was fast asleep twenty minutes ago, yes, I would say so.”

Scott reached over and turned off the lamp. She heard the sheets rustle as he settled back into bed.

“Thanks for answering your phone T.”

“Always.”

“You’re so good to me.” They were whispering now, the darkness seeming to require it.

“No more so then you are to me. I couldn’t do this all without you. I wouldn’t want to.” The darkness seemed to require the honesty too.

“Love you Tess.” She could hear he was trailing off, already falling asleep.

“Love you too.”

She thought about what he had said before. That they didn’t lie to each other. That was just not true. They both lied all the time. To other people. To the media. To each other. To themselves.

For one, they had lied all last season about her legs. And now here she was, scarred again, starting over again, but they had gold medals and a world title to show for it.

They also lied when they told people they were platonic. Not that they were not platonic either. But neither of them were dumb. They both knew what that word meant and it certainly didn’t apply to them. That was fairly obvious with a mostly naked Scott in her bed next to her. Scott lied to her when he said she hoped she had a good date with whoever. She lied to herself when she told herself that there was no good reason for her to be jealous of his girlfriend.                                            

But maybe, she thought, they didn’t need to lie to each other in the dark. No bright lights examining them and their relationship.

She could hear his even breaths, knew he was already asleep. She reached out anyways and placed one hand lightly on his arm. On his arm band. Maybe here in the dark, it would be okay. Maybe it would be just better if they knew.

On nights like tonight, she almost thought he could be her soulmate. When he was so tender and caring, all concerned about her legs. When she was the one he ran to when thing got hard.

But it wasn’t like that. She wasn’t the one he had chosen to start his night with. And she knew she wouldn’t be next week when he apologized and reconciled with his girlfriend again. And while he was here for her every step of the way, literally, this time, he sure hadn’t been after the first surgery.

The first surgery had been so terrible. Not just the pain and the boredom and the rehab and the fear. But the utter lack of Scott. A void where she had expected him to be, regardless of what had gone down beforehand. She hadn’t figured she had hurt him enough to justify him entirely abandoning her. But he had. And that pain had been almost worse than the leg pain because the drugs did nothing to dumb it. The rehab did nothing to heal it. They couldn’t be soulmates or that never would have happened.

She let herself trace his armband though, in the dark. And imagined what could be under it. An animal maybe. Or a number. But she had gave up hope long ago that there could be a leaf (except that was just another lie she told herself).

She forced herself to turn away. To roll over. To put as much distance as possible. To not just peek at his mark. To not ruin his trust that way. To not risk everything they had. Their partnership and also their relationship (whatever that even was).

Telling Scott she was sleepy was just one more lie. She was wide awake and stayed that way for some time trying her best to not throw everything away over some marks.

 

The smell off coffee was the first thing Tessa recognized. Then a voice.

“Tess, you seriously need to get up now. Tess, like right now. I know you can hear me. Tessa.”

She groaned.

“That’s my girl. I made you coffee, so drink it and pull yourself together. I’m going to run home and meet you at the rink. Hurry though or we’re both going to be late.”

She pried her eyes open to see Scott dressed, coat and all, at the side of her bed. She held out one hand and he gave her the mug.

“Thanks for letting me crash last night. I’ll see you in twenty minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” was all she could manage in response. She let the heat of the mug warm her as Scott waved and headed out. Taking stock of the pain level in her legs (like a 2 on the scale, not bad), she pulled herself across the bed. Several hours short on sleep, she had a long day ahead. She got up anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got nothing really to say here today. Weird. Feel free to chat to me here in comments or on tumblr I guess?: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/
> 
> That's all I've got, I just always put an end note so I feel like I needed one. Hope y'all are still liking this. <3


	5. Chapter 5

Retirement was hard. Particularly, trying to explain to people how it was that one could be retired at 26. No one seemed to quite understand that even though she would obviously have a career for the next 40 years, it would always feel secondary to her ice dance career. It was just too odd for anyone to really understand, except for Scott.

That was also hard, her new relationship with Scott. She had barely seen him in the last year and a half since the end of their amateur competition days. Sure, it would seem to an outsider like she saw him plenty. They had just finished touring together again not that long ago. But then they went back to their separate lives. And it wasn’t like it was when they would spend every day together for years. Now they saw each other every couple of weeks. She hadn’t seen him since last week. And she missed him. Missed skating. Missed just talking to him.

Never mind that she was supposed to be studying, as her open textbooks would indicate. She was in a mood and Tessa knew she just couldn’t be productive in a mood like this. So she stood up and grabbed her phone out of the kitchen drawer where she had hidden it from herself. She opened her messages with Scott and noted she hadn’t even heard from him in 3 days. He had his own life, with coaching and with Kaitlyn and with his family. She knew he was busy.

She texted him anyways.

_Free to get dinner tomorrow?_

It might take him hours to respond, but Tessa already felt better. She tried not to examine that thought too closely because those thoughts took her to dangerous territory. Territory she knew much too well from the last decade or more of her life. Instead, she set her phone beside her and buckled down to really study.

She didn’t get through two pages though before her phone buzzed. She picked it up immediately.

_For you, always. Got a place in mind?_

She messaged him back.

_That pub near your place with the good fries?_

The reply was instant.

_Meet you there at 6?_

_Sure :)_

And then she hid her phone again as she needed to make sure she was on top of things before dinner tomorrow night.

 

At 6:03pm, Tessa slid into a corner booth facing towards the door. Knowing she probably had ten minutes before Scott showed up, she scrolled through her emails, making sure she hadn’t missed replying to anything essential.

“You’re always working kiddo.”

Her head snapped up to take in a smiling Scott standing over her. She stood up to hug him hello, taking care not to hold on too long or too tight. When they broke apart, he slid into the seat cross from her and took off his jean jacket, showing off the plain grey t-shirt beneath and his ever present black arm band.

“Sorry, I figured I could get through a few emails before you showed up. Wasn’t expecting you to be only 4 minutes late.”

“I’m trying to turn over a new leaf in my old age,” he joked.

“Your birthday isn’t for a few weeks. You can’t be freaking out already.”

He ran one hand through his hair. “Sometimes I just worry the glory days are behind me, you know. So I might be freaking out just a little about the whole 28 thing.”

She hadn’t planned on necessarily bringing it up at dinner. She maybe just intended to plant the seed, send up a test balloon or two. But here Scott had brought it up before they even order drinks. It seemed like fate.

“I know that worry. Actually, I haven’t been doing so well with retirement.”

Scott quirked his eyebrows. “What are you talking about T? You are handling retirement just like you handle everything else – flawlessly.”

She laughed. “God, does it really seem that way? It doesn’t feel that way at all. I feel like I’m too young to be retired. To have everything in the rear view already.”

The waitress came over. Tessa recognized her, but couldn’t think if she knew her name.

“What can I start you off with?”

“Water and a glass of house white.”

“Water and Steam Whistle please.”

They chorused their thank yous at the waitress as she headed off.

Scott turned back to Tessa, giving her his full attention. “So what are you planning to do about it? Tessa Virtue must have a plan.”

“Well, you see, it depends really.” She gave him her sweetest smile, full of innocence and definitely no scheming at all.

“Depends on what?”

“Depends on what you are planning to do about feeling like your glory days are behind you.” She resisted the urge to bat her eyelashes. That would be overkill.

His eyes narrowed a little and Tessa knew he knew what she was getting at.

“Are you being serious right now?”

She finally dropped her ridiculous smile into something more sincere. “I am. But only if you want it. I don’t want to do it if you don’t want to. I don’t want you doing it for me.”

“That’s what this dinner is all about?”

“No actually. I just thought we hadn’t seen each other much. I missed you.”

He reached across the table and she held out her hand to him. He squeezed it and then didn’t let go. “Sorry I haven’t been around much.”

“No no,” she shook her head. “Don’t apologize. You have a life. It’s fine.”

“I do. But you want to compete again?”

“I maybe want to compete again if and only if you also want to compete independent of the fact that I am asking you if you want to compete again.”

He laughed and she smiled in response. She’d missed his laugh too. God, she was being a freaking sap.

“I don’t even know what that means Tess.”

“It means take some time. Think about it. Get back to me?”

“Sure T.”

“And now, we just have dinner. No more competition talk.”

And they do. It was so easy to fall back into their old ways. He asked about her classes and she asked about his coaching. They talked about their families and made plans for a joint family dinner since it had been a while since the last one. He told her about off season hockey and she didn’t care about it, but she didn’t care about not caring about off season hockey. She was just happy to be with him. Like a sap. And she tried not to wonder what she was going to do if he said no to competition. What she would do if she had to make a five year plan, a life plan, that didn’t include skating with him.

She knew she had to drive home, so she didn’t order a second drink when she finished her first. But Scott wasn’t having it.

“Isn’t the whole point of retirement that we actually get to drink and eat like normal people?” he said, gesturing at the remnants of their devoured burgers.

“Yeah, and part of being a normal person is not getting drunk for no reason.”

Scott snorted, actually snorted, at her. “You hang out with boring normal people. But fine, if you need a reason, then let it be because you won’t get to drink when we go back on a training regimen.”

She froze. Slowly, he grinned. Raised his eyebrows, waiting to see her response.

Tessa flagged down the waitress. “Could we get another round? And a couple of shots of whiskey?”

“Sure thing,” the waitress said, clearing their plates.

She didn’t know what to say. They were actually going to do this. Scott couldn’t stop smiling and she just couldn’t believe that it was this easy to make the decision. But it was.

Their waitress set their drinks and shots down in front of them, and Tessa picked hers right back up.

“To Korea?”

“To redemption.” He knocked his shot glass against her and they drank. The empty glasses clinked against the table as they set them down.

“We need to call Marie and Patch.”

“Yeah, that can wait until tomorrow though.”

“You’re okay with Montreal?” she asked.

“I want Marie and Patch. So Montreal it is. And at least we won’t have to worry about currency rate fluctuations.”

And it was settled. In less time than she could have imagined. She should have known though that they wouldn’t need a lot of words. That they would be in agreement. When it came to skating, it was always just them together.

It took two more rounds of shots before Tessa got the courage to ask the question she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to.

“Have you and Kaitlyn talked about you maybe competing again?”

Scott huffed and searched her face to see if she was really going to make him answer. She was.

“We’ve been… having discussions. About lots of things. The future.” He took a sip of his beer. “We haven’t necessarily agreed. So no, I haven’t talked to her about competition. But no, she won’t be standing in the way.”

Tessa let that wash over her for a moment, tried to read between the lines. That him and Kaitlyn were essentially done regardless. “Sounds like you could use another round?”

He flagged down the waitress again.

 

Since there was no chance either of them were driving anywhere, they left their cars in the pub parking lot and stumbled back to his place.

“You go get changed. I have to send some emails about the food poisoning I just came down with.”

Tessa giggled. “Tsk tsk, faking sick.”

“Not faking. We’ve definitely poisoned our livers.”

Tessa headed into his bedroom, only tripping once over her own feet, and turned on the lights. She headed first to his closet and flicked through. Mostly dress shirts. Those would not be appropriate for her to change in to. Not appropriate at all, she thought as she dragged her fingers down a pinstriped sleeve. Nope. Instead, she closed the closet and pulled open drawers until she found what she was looking for. She grabbed a plain black t-shirt and swapped it for her sundress and bra. It wasn’t as long as she would have liked, but she knew his sweats didn’t fit her right anyways.

“Got an extra charger?” she called out. Her phone was low and she was going to need an alarm to get up.

“Yeah, I’ll bring it. Extra toothbrushes are in the bottom drawer in the bathroom.”

She went and dug through, choosing a purple one. Halfway through her two minutes of teeth brushing, Scott came in and stood behind her. He’d changed out of jeans into sweats and had ditched his shirt all together. Reaching around her, he took his toothbrush. She handed him the toothpaste.

“Thanks T.”

Their eyes met in the mirror and Tessa couldn’t help giggling, toothbrush be damned. She spit in the sink before she made a mess.

“What?”

Tessa couldn’t stop laughing. It was the whiskey, she was pretty sure. “It’s like there was only one pair of pajamas for both of us.”

She saw in the mirror as his gaze raked down her body, taking in her lack of pants.

“I think I’m supposed to make a joke about good partners sharing or something.” But his voice was low and raw and his eyes lingered on the hem of her (really his) shirt.

Still giggling, Tessa placed her toothbrush beside the sink and went to curl up in his bed. A charger was waiting for her on the comforter. She plugged it in behind the nightstand and attached her phone. As soon as she curled up under the covers, she started drifting off. She was passed out before Scott even turned out the lights.

 

She buried her head deep under her pillow, not up to figuring out how to make the noise stop.

“T. That’s your phone.”

She moaned and made no move. Everything hurt. Goddamn whiskey.

She felt Scott flop across her back as he reached over her to turn off her alarm.

“What the hell T.” He shifted back to his side of the bed once it was silenced.

“I think I’m dying.”

“Water and Advil beside you.”

As grateful as she was, she didn’t think she was up to sitting up just yet.

“Let’s call Marie and Patch tomorrow. When we’re sober and alive again.”

“Agreed.”

She rolled over and reached out to Scott. When she found his side, he pulled her to him. She pressed her head against his chest and wished they had skipped that last round of shots.

“We’re never doing that again,” she moaned.

“Maybe when we have another gold.”

Gold sounded good.

 

***

 

“I don’t know. Is it too far from the rink?”

She walked around the empty living room, trying to decide if she could picture herself living here for the next two years. The light was good, lots of windows. But the kitchen was old. She knew she shouldn’t care about that, since she didn’t cook much anyways. But she preferred the nice clean lines of newer appliances and counters.

“I don’t think so, T. I think you are going to prefer having decent cafes in walking distance to saving a couple minutes of drive time in the mornings.”

“It’s like you don’t know me at all,” she deadpanned. “Nothing is more important than sleep.”

He flicked her ponytail. “It’s like you don’t know yourself, silly. You want to be able to stroll around taking all your artsy Instagram pictures while living the big city life.”

“So do you think this is it?” the broker asked, reminding them there was someone else there.

“I think so,” Tessa said.

“Great, I’ll tell the landlord to get you a lease written up.”

Scott wrapped his arms around her from behind and snuggled his face into her neck. “You picked a good one. You’ve made a good choice.”

She covered his hands with her own, leaning back into him. “I think I did.”

 

On the first of the month when she took possession, she couldn’t have been more pleased. Not with the moving process. That was a pain, but one she was fairly used to in her life. At least the movers had been competent. And the landlord had done a cursory clean before she moved it, so it could have been worse. But she was pleased with her choice. Her choice to come back to competition. To move to Montreal.

And despite starting training tomorrow for real, she felt she deserved a treat. She grabbed her phone the top of a stack of boxes. After two rings, he answered.

“Let me guess, you already have all your boxes unpacked and you want to come take pity and help me unpack.”

“Not even close. But I’m thinking pizza?”

“As long as you don’t expect me to be able to find the box with plates, then that sounds great.”

“Okay, I’ll order it now. It will probably be twenty minutes, so I’ll see you in thirty?”

“Sounds good T. Text me when you have the pizza and don’t get lost on the way.”

She rolled her eyes even though he couldn’t see her. The city might be new to both of them but she didn’t think she would get lost when he lived a whole two buildings over. She hung up and pulled open Yelp, looking to see what place she should order from.

The best reviewed place ended up being too far to walk after a full day of moving. So she ordered, spent another 10 minutes unpacking glasses and mugs, and then grabbed her car keys.

The pizza was waiting for her when she arrived. She stashed it safely on the passenger seat before typing Scott’s new address into her GPS.

_Got the pizza. My phone says it will take me 7 minutes to get to you. Try to find the plates before then._

Before she finished picking her music, her phone buzzed.

_We’re eating off paper towels kiddo. Deal with it._

Keeping the radio low, Tessa focused on following the robotic voice’s instructions.

“At the next light, turn left. Your destination will be on the right.”

Almost there.

 

Someone was speaking at her in French. She pried her eyes open, but the world was spinning and she felt like she was going to throw up. She squeezed them back shut.

“What?”

The voice stopped for a moment, then switched to English. “You’re going to be okay. Can you tell me you name?”

Tessa swallowed. Everything hurt.

“Tessa.”

“Great Tessa. Good. You’re going to be fine. You were in a car crash, but we’re taking you to the hospital. We’ll get you some pain killers, but can you tell us who should we call?”

“What?”

“Who do you want to come get you?”

“Scott.”

“Good. You’re doing great Tessa. Just hang on and the pain meds should kick in soon.”

 

Nothing hurt. In fact, she could feel very little of anything. She cracked her eyes open to try and take stock of what was happening.

The first thing her brain managed to process was the sight of his hands clasped around hers. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Everything would be okay. With more effort than she should have had to use, she ordered her hand to squeeze his.

The response was instantaneous. His chair squealed against the floor as he jumped up in surprised.

“Hey T. How are you feeling?” his tone was so soft, filled with care. He didn’t let go of her hand, but brushed his thumb against hers.

“It’s like I’m floating.”

His eyes crinkled with amusement. “Yeah, they messed up and gave you too much morphine. It knocked you out for a while. It’ll wear off.”

“What happened?”

The amusement quickly faded and his eyes turned hard. Just for a second. Then he got himself under control again. “Some asshole ran a red. But you’re going to be fine. Nothing’s broken. You’re just going to have some nasty bruises. They’ll let me take you home just as soon as you aren’t so high.”

She tried to take in her surroundings, other than Scott. White sheets and a grey blanket. An awful light green hospital gown with a matching arm band. Closed curtains hiding the time of day. A muted tv showing some talk show. A needle in the back of her hand, held in place with tape.

“Okay.” That felt like enough information for the moment. So she closed her eyes again, feeling nothing except for the warmth from their joined hands.

“Your mom’s on her way T. She’ll be here in a few hours.”

Tessa hummed in acknowledgement. That was good. Unlike Montreal drivers. Fucking Montreal drivers. She must have said it out loud because he heard Scott laugh. That was a good sound. She let the meds take her away again, back into a hazy sleep.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay a few more days? It’s only been a week.” Her mom held her close, but gently so as to not press against any of the bruises.

“I’m going to the rink tomorrow mom. There won’t be anything for you to do here. I’m fine.”

“I still think it is too soon.”

“Really, I’m fine. The bruises are yellow now, they’ll be gone in no time. And if you are really worried and don’t believe me, I’m sure you can convince Scott to text you updates.”

She didn’t need to turn around to know he was nodding from the bar stool he was perched on.

“I’ll make sure she looks after herself,” he said solemnly.

Her mom let go of her and walked over to hug Scott, kissing him on the cheek. “Oh, I know you always do.” Then in a whisper she added “But please, text me updates.”

“I heard that Mom.”

Scott insisted on carrying her mom’s suitcase to her car. Tessa waved good bye from the doorway, not willing to get bundled up to go outside. One week into November and it was already chilly with fall long gone and winter settling in.

When her mom pulled away from the curb, she headed back into the kitchen, leaving the door open for Scott. The kettle needed filling before she could switch it on and retreat to the couch.

“This place looks like you’ve been living here for months,” Scott noted. He pulled his boots off and set them beside hers.

Tessa watched from under a blanket while he moved into the kitchen and got out a couple of mugs.

“It was actually really handy to have my mom here. The unpacking went so much quicker.”

“If you had just let her stay longer, maybe she would have helped with mine.” The kettle whistled and shut itself off. He added a couple tea bags to the mugs before pouring the still boiling water. “At this rate, I’m still going to have moving boxes waiting for me to unpack when we come home from PyeongChang.”

“I can help tomorrow after practice.”

“No. Tomorrow after practice you are going to come home, take a bath, and not strain yourself further. Cause if you don’t, I’ll call Marie France and tell her that you aren’t healed enough yet to train yet and then you’ll be forced to rest.”

“I get hit by one little car and no one will let me move past it.”

“Yeah, please don’t go doing that again,” he tried to keep his tone light, joking, but utterly failed. He dropped a quick kiss on top of her head before handing her her mug. “Camomile with honey.”

“No caffeine?”

“You should nap after lunch.”

“And you?”

“Well, my whole job today is to make sure you are healing. So if you are napping, I might as well also test out your new mattress and make sure it is good enough for you.”

“How chivalrous.” She snuggled into his side as he draped one arm around her shoulders. She was healing just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So good news, I have actually already written like half of the next chapter. Okay, maybe just a third. It might be long. (This chapter was also longer than expected).  
> Also, I have actually kind of plotted out the rest of this story loosely. So it's looking like 3 more chapters, 8 total, unless some brilliant addition comes to me.  
> Honestly, I know this chapter is a little light on the soulmates part, but hopefully it was sufficiently fluffy that y'all don't mind too much. (Can I call a chapter fluffy when I had someone get hit by a car?) I promise I will make up for it in the next few chapters. 
> 
> Find me here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up: this chapter is accidentally 6000 words. Plan your time accordingly.

“I don’t want to.”

“You have to Tess.”

“Make me.”

“Well actually, since I’m your only mode of transportation right now, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Tessa did not stamp her feet because that would be childlike. She did however pout. Even though she knew he was right.

“Can’t I just wait another week? Why do we need to go car shopping today?”

“Because it has already been two weeks T, and your insurance company thinks you’re crazy for delaying. And you can’t live without a car.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to figure a way out of it. She didn’t see one. “Fine.”

“Good, we’ll go after training then and pick up dinner as a treat afterwards.”

She turned to look out the passenger window, away from Scott. The houses on the route to the rink were starting to be familiar after just a week. Especially since she hadn’t been the one driving, giving her lots of time for taking in the new city.

“Is it that you are scared about driving again? About getting back on the proverbial horse.”

“I’m not scared. I face my fears.” Almost all of them anyways. All, except the one that could make or break her whole life. And honestly, she felt justified in not facing that one. In keeping it locked away. Even if it didn’t seem to stay particularly locked away. In fact, lately it broke free several times a day and wreaked havoc on the rest of her thoughts. Okay, maybe she was going to have to face that one at some point too, before she lost her ability to function as a normal person. But she faced the rest of her fears, including Montreal drivers. “I would never let Montreal drivers best me.”

“What is it then?”

“It’s silly.”

He nudged her leg playfully, but she swatted his hand away. “Hands on the steering wheel.”

He quickly obeyed.

“I just like things the way are this week, you know? It feels like the old days. When we moved to Canton and you had to drive me around whether you liked it or not. Except without all of the awfulness of Arctic Edge and the people and the loneliness. It’s just a blast from the past, but only the good parts.”

Scott cleared his throat a little. His voice was almost steady as he spoke. “Only you, T, could be sentimental about the ramifications of getting your car totaled.”

“I told you it was silly. But you pried.”

He pulled into the rink parking lot, backing into a spot near the door. “No, it’s not silly. It’s sweet.”

She let him grab both their bags, while she took their coffee filled travel mugs. The only other car already in the parking lot was Patch’s, which meant the doors to the rink would be unlocked. Scott held the door open for Tessa to walk through first, but leaned in close to her ear as she passed him.

“We’re still going car shopping though.”

Her breath hitched at his nearness. Yeah, she was maybe going to have to face that one fear of hers sooner than later.

 

It was good to be back to regular training. Despite the new city, Tessa felt settled. She liked having her days mapped out again. Liked knowing what the future held, with competitions and tours scheduled months in advance. Liked having Scott by her side through all of it. Including carpooling and cooking dinner.

To save her from herself, Scott had declared upon moving to Montreal that they might as well just do dinners together regularly. That way they could plan in advance with grocery shopping and alternating apartments, and she would eat more than eggs and toast. To go with that, after Tessa had gotten her new car (a red, all-wheel drive hybrid), Scott suggested they could keep carpooling. Just take turns driving. Since they lived so close anyways. You know, save the planet. Be responsible citizens. So they did that too, unless one of them had plans after training, like yoga or beer league hockey.

Six weeks in, the system was working just fine. That night it was Tessa’s apartment they had gone back to after physio. Scott had cooked while she kept him company, chattering away about the movies that were coming out that she wanted to see but knew she would never get around to seeing in theatres. In return, she took care of the dishes, washing up after they ate while he stood behind her. His arms reached around her, not touching her, but encircling her between him and the sink. His chest didn’t press against her back, but she was still acutely aware of how close he was. He didn’t rest his head on her shoulder, but hovered right above it so she could feel his breath against her ear.

“You know, that isn’t helping.”

“But you told me not to help. Which leaves me with nothing at all to do, but stand here.”

He was playing a dangerous game. They both knew it. But it wasn’t like they hadn’t been playing the game since they were teenagers. The problem was, Tessa didn’t think she wanted to play the game anymore. She wanted it to end. Had finally admitted to herself that this domestic bliss was what she wanted. That these six weeks, car crash and all, were the best weeks she had had in years.

And she was terrified. Absolutely petrified by it. Because she could choose to end the game. But she couldn’t choose how it ended. That would be up to him.

She’d been analysing his every move towards her since they decided to come back to competition. As soon as they made the decision, they had snapped back to their old routines. Spending infinitely more time together then they had previously during their retirement. They had dinners where they talked about song selections. Days at the gym, easing back into a routine. Apartment hunting. Business meetings and phone calls. Packing. Goodbye dinners with both their families. Moving. The accident. Training. And after cataloguing how he treated her though all of that, she honestly didn’t know how he felt. He treated her exactly the same as always. Caring, always attentive. Joking, taking every opportunity to make her laugh. Affectionate, verbally and physically. She had no idea if he felt what she was feeling. If he wanted more. So to go for it, to tell him how she was feeling, really was putting everything on the line. He could turn her down and then she didn’t know what would be left. Of them. Of their partnership. Of their friendship. She didn’t know what would be left of her.

But he was so close. So distracting. All the time. And she knew she couldn’t live like this. Having almost everything, but wanting that last bit more. Wanting him to be hers. Wanting to be his.

She felt like she did when she sat across from him at dinner, asking him to come back to competition with her. Like the risk was worth it. That she needed to try. And when she made up her mind, there was really no point in waiting any longer.

Tessa placed the last pot in the drying rack and pulled the plug out of the sink. She peeled off her rubber gloves and set them down to dry. And then, carefully, so as not to brush against him, she turned around so her back pressed into the counter, and she could look up at him. A smile played at the corner of his lips, but he didn’t move. Didn’t give her any more space. That was fine, she didn’t want any.

“Thanks for cooking.”

“Thanks for doing the dishes.”

Mutual consideration. The thing they had learned early on in their partnership was so important.

“I love you.” She said it slowly, deliberately.

“I love you too Tess.”

They’d said it thousands of times and she meant it every single time. But she loved him even more every time he said it back to her. And he was looking at her with all the warmth and love she could want. So she went for it.

“I’m in love with you.”

She forced herself not to look away, or backtrack, or run. She committed to whatever would come next. Which happened to be being crushed against his chest. She didn’t even have time to register the look on his face before she found herself buried against his chest, his grip digging into her back and hips, trying to get rid of any possible space between them. Half a second behind him, she wrapped her arms around him, curling one hand into his hair like she loved to do. And she exhaled. This was good. This had to be good, she was pretty sure.

Just as suddenly as he had hugged her, he let go, stepping back to cradle her face in both hands. Tilting her chin up so she was ensnared by his eyes, filled with more hope and happiness than she had ever seen.

“Really, Tess? Really?” his voice was breaking, and she didn’t blame him. She didn’t trust her own voice to respond, so she just nodded.

And he leaned in, closing the distance, caressing her lips with his. It was tender and teasing. Everything she wanted and not nearly enough. And then it was over before she could deepened it.

“I’m in love with you too. I love you so much, T.” Those words were just about the only thing better than that kiss. They were everything she wanted to hear, and they told her no matter what, it was all going to be okay.

So in that moment, she decided that it was worth it to take the final step. Because she had him, no matter what. This one thing, no matter how important it might have seemed to her over the years, she wasn’t going to let it define them. No matter what the result. But she still needed to do it. Needed to know so that it wouldn’t be hanging over them.

“Scott?” she said, threading both hands through his hair. It felt so good. She knew she was going to spend a lot of time wrapped up in him like this. “I love you. I do. Can I see your mark?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he pushed his sleeve up so the band was fully showing, and held out his arm to her.

Gently, with one hand, she pushed it down. Just enough to see it. And froze.

She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Scott’s hand came up and covered hers, guiding her to take the band the rest of the way off his arm. She let it drop to the floor, immediately forgotten.

A silver, double-lined maple leaf. With two lines reaching around his arm. She barely dared to touch it. Could only brush her thumb across it, as if it could be wiped away if she pressed too hard.

“We match. Fucking hell. We really match.” She literally could not believe it. It was the one thing she had forbidden herself to hope for for so long now. And yet. They matched. Her legs were going to give out at any second, but she couldn’t bear to fall out of sight of his mark. As if it would disappear the moment she blinked.

“We’re soulmates, Tess.” His voice was filled with just as much awe as hers.

She would have loved to see his face. She was missing yet another crucial moment, but she couldn’t look away. Without taking her hand or eyes off his mark, she reached up to her own arm band. Before she could pull it down, Scott’s hand landed on top of hers, pinning her hand to her arm.

“Stop, Tess. I need to tell you something.”

She blinked back the tears that were threating to fall. Happy tears. The happiest of tears. “Can’t it wait, Scott? Isn’t this more important?”

He shook his head, with a sad smile. “No, I think you need to hear this right now. But then you’re going to be mad. So I actually need to tell you two things so that I maybe get out of this conversation alive.”

Tessa had no idea what the hell he was going on about at a time like this. Her brain could barely even process the words he was saying. As if sensing this, he pulled her hand off her arm and guided her over to the couch. He sat down first, pulling her into his lap. One arm secured her waist, keeping her close to him. With his free hand he tucked her hair behind her ear, traced the outline of her jaw.

“T. I need to say the first thing. And then I need you to let me say the second thing. And I need you to believe the second thing. Can you promise me that you’ll listen and believe me?”

She still had no idea what was going on. She couldn’t even read it in his eyes. He was so focused on her, not upset or worried or even particularly happy. Just intensely focused like he really needed her to do this for him. She glanced from his eyes to his mark and back again. Her soulmate needed her. So she agreed.

“I promise.”

She felt him take a breath in before he spoke. “Tess, I’ve seen your mark.”

What. She recoiled instantly, the shock taking over and completely erasing everything else from her mind. She would have fallen backwards, but Scott’s arm held her tight, keeping her close to him. Much closer than she wanted to be. How could he have seen it? And not even told her? He knew. He knew they matched and said nothing. She felt completely betrayed. Wanted to run. Get away. Somewhere. Anywhere where she could sit and process everything racing through her brain. Through her heart.

“Tess,” his voice broke through the growing emotion to snap her back to him. “I know. I’m sorry.” He reached up to stroke her hair with the arm that wasn’t keeping her pinned to this conversation. She flinched back away from his touch, and he let his arm drop.

“I’m so sorry Tess, but the second thing is that it didn’t matter when I saw your mark. Cause I have always known. I’ve always known we were soulmates T.”

She tried to fight the growing anger to absorb what he was saying.

“That’s the second thing T. I already knew we were soulmates.”

“You couldn’t have,” she choked out.

He shook his head just a tiny bit. “You promised to believe me. You have to believe me. I knew.”

None of this made any sense. And it was way past overwhelming. With nowhere to go, she pitched forward and hid herself again his chest. Buried her face again his shirt and clung to him with both hands.

Carefully, he started stroking her back. When she didn’t stop him, when she just kept clutching on to him, he finally released his grip on her waist. He cradled the back of her head against him and rubbed soft circles on her back. Without even trying, she synced her breathing to his. To his slow and steady breaths.

Sometime later, when she was as calm as she was going to get, she pulled back just enough so her words wouldn’t be muffled by his shirt. “How?”

“I’ll tell you, but this has already been a big night. Maybe it can wait for another day and we can skip to the soulmate sex part?”

Shocked, Tessa sat up straight. He was joking, his eyes playful, but she smacked him lightly on the arm just the same. His right arm. She would never hit his mark. “Scott Moir, now is not the time for your teasing. Start talking.”

Grinning, he leaned forward and dropped a kiss right at the edge of her mouth. “Fine,” he murmured against her skin. He settled back against the couch and she shifted her weight to make them both more comfortable. His held her hips gently to support her. Resting her hands against his chest, Tessa waited for him to begin.

“I knew you were special that very first day I took your hand on the ice. Mostly because I just didn’t want to let go. So okay, maybe I didn’t know right then that you were my soulmate, but I knew you were different to me than anyone else. And we grew up. And I kept wanting to hold your hand as much as possible. And I suspected we were soulmates. I hoped we were. Couldn’t imagine a future where someone was closer to me than you.

“And then that morning, when I noticed my mark in the bathroom mirror for the first time. I knew then. Instantly. Absolutely. It was our mark. Yours and mine. Even though I knew you wouldn’t get yours for another couple years probably. We were soulmates.”

She didn’t want to cut him off. Everything he was saying was running straight to her heart. Settling her fears, calming her, assuring her. But she didn’t understand.

“How did you know just from the mark? I didn’t.”

He looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t get it?”

She shrugged. “The maple leaf, sure. But that doesn’t mean it has to be us.”

He leaned forward, kissed her forehead. “I thought you must have known. I’ll show you tomorrow. We really already have enough ground to cover tonight, okay?”

She hummed in agreement. He was right. There was still a lot left to say. She could wait one more day since the important part anyways was that her mark was his mark too.

“We were still so young then, and you didn’t have you mark, so I decided to wait to say anything. Unless you had asked of course. If you had ever asked, I would have shown you.”

But she hadn’t. She hadn’t asked and he had stayed silent.

“Are you going to get to the part where you saw my mark?”

He sighed. “I saw it after the crash. At the hospital.”

After the crash. Tessa thought back, how he had been there when she woke up. But she had that hospital arm band on.

“You peeked at my mark while I was lying in a hospital bed?” She couldn’t keep the pain out of her voice. Couldn’t believe that he had betrayed her like that, especially given what he had just said about knowing anyways.

“No Tess, I swear, I didn’t peek.” He held her face softly with both hands, making sure she could see how sincere he was being. “When they finally let me back to your room, they had changed you into a hospital gown and you were asleep from the drugs. They must have taken off your arm band too. I didn’t realize at first since I was sitting on the other side holding your hand. When I did, I actually fell out of my chair. I had known, I didn’t doubt it, but actually seeing it was not something I was prepared for. Especially since I had no warning. Luckily, my ass hitting the floor didn’t wake you. So I called in one of the nurses and asked if she would cover it for you. She did and you woke up like half an hour later.”

She believed him, she did. But it still made her sad. “You never said anything. Never treated me any differently after that.”

“Why would I? Like I said, I already knew. That didn’t change anything. I still loved you just as before. I was just waiting for you to be ready. For you to love me back.”

“I did love you back.” She wanted to make that clear to him. That this wasn’t new, how she felt about him. “I was just scared. But now, despite all that sorting itself out, I hate that this part isn’t special for you. That you’ve already seen it.”

He ran his hands down her arms, over her arm band, grounding her to him. “Of course it’s special T. I doubt that I’ll ever stop being in wonder at seeing your mark. At the reminder that despite not deserving it, the universe gave me you anyways. And more than that, that you chose me yourself.”

“Not deserving? Please don’t sell yourself short.” She rested her forehead against his. “That’s the love of my life you’re talking about there.”

He laughed and tilted his chin up to kiss her, still laughing against her lips. “I don’t think I’ll ever be less in wonder when you call me that either. So will you show me now?”

She shifted off his lap and sat facing towards him. Without taking her eyes off of his, she held out her arm to him. Watched as his gaze locked onto her arm band. As he reached out and gently held her arm, just as she had the day he found out about her mark. Except, instead of stopping, he slid his left hand all the way up her arm. Carefully, he slid the band down and off her arm. Both their breaths hitched the moment the mark was fully revealed. Finally.

“You know what I didn’t get to do in the hospital?” He bent forward and kissed the maple leaf. He pulled back so that both his hands could come up and trace the lines circling her arm.

When she stopped watching his fingers and looked back up, she saw he was crying. Tears silently falling down his face. With her right arm, she brushed them away, kissing the tracks they had made down his cheeks.

“Did you really not know?” he asked. “How could you not know?”

“I never let myself hope.” It was her turn. Her turn to explain some things. “It crossed my mind when we were teenagers, sure, before you ever got your mark. But the odds were against us. And skating was the important thing. It had to be. So I told myself you weren’t. That my soulmate was not right next to me every day. And then time move on. And you dated. Dated girls who weren’t me. And my heart broke a little every time, except that there was no reason for my heart to be breaking. You weren’t my soulmate. I tried so hard to convince myself. And then I needed the surgery.”

His grip tightened involuntarily on her arm. She saw his breathing stop, his chest stop moving. She didn’t blame him. The tears she had been holding back were freely falling down her cheeks now.

“And you weren’t there for me. And I couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t understand. So you couldn’t be my soulmate because I didn’t think a soulmate could abandon me. Despite the fact that my heart was shredded into a million pieces, the way no one but my soulmate could ever have affected me.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry Tess. So sorry.”

She hushed him, trying to calm him down, despite still crying herself. She started talking over him as he chorused out apologies, in the most soothing tone she could manage. “I know. I know you are. It’s okay. I forgave you long ago. It’s okay Scott. I love you. It’s okay.”

He stopped apologizing, but she could still see it all over his face, through his whole body.

“I’m only bringing it up so you could know. Know why I didn’t think you were. Why it took me so long to tell you how I feel. Because I’ve loved you forever. Even when I told myself I didn’t, I still loved you.”

“I’m so sorry for all of it T.” She tried to cut him off again, but he wouldn’t let her. “Let me explain, please?”

He wiped away her tears, waiting until she stopped crying and told him to begin.

“I knew we were soulmates, but you didn’t ask to see my mark. I figured I would have to wait two years for you to get yours, for you to figure it out. And then it would be us forever. But I was young and dumb and cocky and didn’t think it could hurt if I dated around while I waited for you.

“But then you got your mark. And you didn’t even tell me. The mark that was so obviously our mark to me. And you hid it. And when I felt your arm band in practice, it just broke me. And that probably wasn’t fair to you, but it did. It felt like my soulmate didn’t want me back. And what might have been worse was feeling like my best friend didn’t even want to share that with me. I was crushed, T. Totally crushed.”

There had been no point in him wiping away her tears before, nor her him, as now they were both openly sobbing. She clung to him, realizing just what she had done without ever even suspecting. She cried for the wasted years and the hurt and pain they had put each other though.

And through his own sobs he continued. “I wasn’t there after the surgery. And it was wrong. And I knew it was wrong every moment I was alone in Michigan. But I thought you knew, knew what we were, and had pushed me away anyways. I should have been there. Then when you came back, it took so much work for us to even get back to friends. I thought you couldn’t possibly want me after all of that, soulmate marks be damned.

“So I figured if you didn’t want me, I was free to look for someone who did. And I was a dick to you. And a dick to them. And none of them meant a fraction to me of what you did. And I knew it was wrong. But you didn’t want me, and I didn’t want to be alone while I waited for you to maybe someday change your mind, to want me back.

“And I watched you with them, the guys you dated, and I couldn’t do a damn thing. Because I didn’t want to force you to be with me. And I was broken. I did a terrible job of ignoring that I was always happiest with you. That everything else was lesser when you weren’t there. And I waited. And I tried to build a life, in case you never changed your mind. And it was awful. Every single minute.

“Until this summer, when you said you missed me. And I thought maybe, maybe this was our chance. To finally sort our shit out. And I wasn’t going to blow it this time. I was done wasting time with anyone else. This time, I was going to wait. I would have waited forever Tess. I should have always done that. But we’re here now. And we finally have it. Right, Tess? Forever?”

“Forever Scott,” she vowed, before kissing him. She tried to put everything into that kiss. How sorry she was. How much she loved him. How much she wanted forever with him. But she was still crying, and she had to break it off because she just couldn’t breathe.

She reached over to the end table and grabbed the whole box of tissues sitting there. Held it out to him to take a couple. Took a couple for herself. She wiped her tears and blew her nose, not at all caring that she must look like such a mess. He did the same.

When she was fairly certain that she was all cried out, she straddled him, her knees pinning his hips between them. She crossed her arms behind his neck for what would hopefully be the last apology of the night.

“Scott, I swear to you that I didn’t know. That doesn’t fix it, it doesn’t make it better, but I didn’t know. Not even just that we’re soulmates, but I didn’t know you loved me the way I love you. And I was so terrified of how enormous what I felt for you was, like it would consume me, that I did everything to fight it and pretend I didn’t feel everything that I do for you. I had no idea I was hurting you like that. And I won’t do it again. I promise. It’s just us now.”

She could feel him relaxing, the tension dropping out of his shoulders, his back. And that made her relax. Like despite everything, they had made it through and they were going to be okay. Better than okay. But not quite yet.

“If that’s true, if you really didn’t think I was your soulmate, then why did you take the plunge?” He was still a little hurt and confused. It was written all over his face. She didn’t blame him. It had all been so much. So she told him the truth.

“Because I decided nothing I could have with any other person, soulmate or not, could compare to this. To you. That if you weren’t who the powers that be meant me to be with, then they got it wrong. I only wanted you. I only want you.”

And he kissed her. Not soft. Not chaste. Not interrupted by tears. Hard and all consuming. She fisted her hands in his hair, pulling him as close as possible and keeping him there. They were so done with talking and she couldn’t be gladder. It was the most exhausting conversation she had ever had, but she felt the exhaustion slipping away as she pressed herself down into him. She’d never felt more alive as he pressed back and kissed her back and she entirely lost herself in him. In them.

His grabbed her ass, pulling her securely against him and stood up, taking her with him. She wrapped her legs around him, and broke off the kiss so he could focus on where he was going. Instead, she moved her attention to his ear lobe, nipping and sucking at it. And she whispered all the things she had never let herself tell him before. How much she loved him. How much she wanted him. How she’d dreamed of him. And it was a miracle he was able to focus enough to make it to her bedroom and safely drop her on her mattress.

 

She wasn’t sure she actually really slept. She was too aware of all the places his body pressed against hers as he held her close. Too aware of their perfectly synced breathing. But she spent the night safe and warm in his arms, utterly content, and it really didn’t matter to her if she had slept or not.

Her phone alarm went off, a horrible reminder that the world still existed outside of her apartment. They couldn’t hide forever, but she was sorely tempted to see how long they could just stay here before anyone came looking for them. She reached over to shut off the noise and Scott stirred beside her.

“Shh love,” she said, stroking his hair as his eyes fluttered open. “Don’t get up. It’s okay. I’ll go email Patch and tell him we need a day off.”

“No Tess,” he grabbed at her, stopping her from getting up.

She laughed. “I promise I’ll be right back. Two minutes.”

He sat up and pulled her closer, back across the mattress. “No,” he said, before kissing her softly. “We have to go to the rink today.”

“What?” She hadn’t seen that coming. Didn’t think she would possibly have to give him the hard sell on why they needed the day off. Not after last night.

“I need to show you something at the rink. It’ll just take an hour. And then I’ll contract food poisoning and we can come right back.”

Tessa didn’t have any idea what he had planned, but she trusted him. Fully. “Let’s go then.” She stood up and headed over to grab her black, silk housecoat from her closet.

“Wait, I just need a minute to admire the view.” She glared over her shoulder at her idiot soulmate blatantly looking her up and down. She grabbed a decorative pillow from where it had fallen on the floor last night and chucked it right at his face.

“There’ll be time for that later,” she said, wrapping her housecoat around herself.

 

Half an hour later, she was at the rink, sitting next to Scott as they tied up their skates. They had the first ice time of the morning to themselves and even Patch wasn’t going to be in for another hour. Since they were still a few months away from starting in on new routines, their days were centered on getting back into shape more than perfecting routines. That meant they did a fair bit of their training on their own. And as such, Marie had given them each keys, the only skaters at the rink to have them.

Scott finished tying his skates first and walked over to the gate.

“Wait for me,” she called.

“Always.”

She was thirty seconds behind him. She met him at the gate, took off her guards, and held out her hand to him. He instantly took it. She moved to open the gate, but a tug from Scott stopped her.

“Look at the ice for a minute.”

Tessa raised one eyebrow at him.

“I said the ice, not me.”

With a bit of a side eye, Tess looked at the ice. The perfectly ordinary ice.

“It’s fresh ice Scott. What’s so special about that?”

He didn’t answer, just grinned and opened the gate. She stepped out after him, hand in hand, and they started stroking around the outline of the rink. But he slowed her down when they finished their first circuit. Opening the gate, he gestured for her to step off the ice.

“If you got me out of bed to do one single lap Scott Moir, you better know there will be consequences.”

He smirked at her, knowing something she didn’t. “I doubt that.”

He moved to stand behind her, spinning her around to face the rink. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and whispered in her ear. “Look at the ice now T.”

The only marks on the ice were from their lap around the rink. Two identical ovals around the edge, broken only where they had switched feet. You could barely see the breaks from a distance though. The ovals looked almost prefect. Two identical circles.

Tessa shuddered as it hit her.

“I told you I’d show you what the marks meant Tess. They’re ours. The marks we make every day together. Identical. In sync. We’ve made them over and over, the endless laps we’ve skated in our lives, carving our marks into the ice together.”

For the third time in less than twelve hours, Tessa was crying. For someone who was normally in control of her emotions, it was pretty overwhelming to show them off like this. Even to Scott. But she couldn’t help it.

“I can’t believe I missed that. It was right there the whole time.” She turned her head so she could kiss him. She needed to be with him in that moment.

When they broke apart, she stared at the rink again. She reached up and held onto his arm, right over where his mark was, as she gazed at the marks in front of her.

“You know now. And we’ll both know it now, every time we skate. Just us.”

“Just us,” she agreed.

“Now let’s get out of here before Patrice shows up. I have plans today and they don’t include him.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked, trotting out her innocent angel voice. “What plans would those be?”

And he told her. They were not innocent. He only got through telling her some of them before she physically dragged him towards their shoes.

“We need to leave. Right now. You drive, I’ll email Patch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was exhausting to write. I knew everything I needed to include and that just ended up taking way more words than I expected. But I hope that's okay and that y'all still like it. (Also, I made it through a chapter without either of them getting drunk. Hadn't done that in a bit.)
> 
> There are still at least two more chapters I'm going to add to this. They won't be coming that soon though as I'm up against real life deadlines so writing is going to have to put on hold. Also, I wrote the last chapter and this one in just over 24 hours and I have never in my life wrote 10,000 words in such a short time. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me through this. I so appreciate all the nice things y'all have said so far. Hugs and kisses to all of you if you want them. Asks and messages are open over on tumblr: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bonus chapter.

“So Christmas is only two weeks away…”

Scott’s response was muffled. “What?”

Tessa turned around to see Scott finish pulling his sweater over his head, accidentally pulling his shirt up with it leaving several inches of bare skin exposed leading to… Dinner. They needed to eat dinner. Priorities.

Scott threw his sweater on top of a box sitting next to his door. Shaking her head to clear it, Tessa went back to removing her many layers and carefully hanging them in the coat closet.

Unwrapping her circular scarf around her neck, she tried again. “Christmas is in two weeks.”

“Please don’t tell me this is another conversation about me needing a tree. There is no room Tess. Just look.” He gestured to his living room where boxes were still stacked beside the tv and couch. Unhung art leaned against the walls. Curtain rods were on the floor, yet to be put up. “Your tree is enough for both of us. I don’t want to have to carry another anyways. If you want it to feel more like Christmas, we can just spend every night at your place before we go home.”  
Tessa placed her boots on the edge of the mat, out of the way of the door, straightening his beside hers.

“It’s not that. I’ve given up on your tree. For this year. But I’ve had an idea.”

She followed him into the kitchen and jumped up to sit on the counter. He was busy rifling through the fridge, gathering all they needed to cook that night.

“I know we don’t usually do presents with each other, but this year is special.”

Closing the fridge, set the chicken on the counter and walked over to her.

“Very special,” he agreed, sliding her forward to the edge of the counter. She spread her knees so he could step closer before kissing her thoroughly. They had gone ten hours at the rink, at dance class, and at therapy not kissing. They needed this. No.

Dinner. They needed dinner.

Tessa gently pushed him away. “We need to eat. And then we have all night free.”

“You’re right,” he said, sneaking another kiss on the tip of her nose. “You’re always right.”

He returned to the task at hand and Tessa tried not to be too wistful about the six feet between them.

“I think we should do something this year, just us, before we go home. But not presents. I think we should do _something_ for each other that isn’t like a gift. Have a night here before we leave and make it our first real holiday together.”

“I don’t know what you mean, T. What’s something that isn’t a gift?”

“It means, I have something in mind, but it isn’t a gift per se. But if I’m doing something for you then I know you would be upset if I didn’t also let you do something for me.”  
“Basically you mean a gift that can’t be wrapped and put under the tree?”

“I guess, yeah.”

He was quiet for a minute, the only sound between them was the chopping of his knife. He brushed the cauliflower into the roasting pan and moved on to the broccoli.

“When did you want to do this?”

“We’re driving home on the 23rd, so I guess the evening of the 22nd?”

“The Tuesday? I have a hockey game that night, but I think it’s an early one. Want to double check my schedule for me?”

Tessa popped off the counter and took his phone out of his back pocket. With one hand, she typed in his passcode. The other hand, she wrapped around his middle, pressing her cheek against his back.

“It’s a 7 o’clock game. So we should be fine by 9, right?”

Opening his Spotify, she searched for a Christmas playlist before setting his phone down on the counter.

“That’ll be our two week anniversary,” he said softly.

Tessa laughed. “You aren’t going to call it that, are you? Two week anniversaries feel like such a thirteen year old thing to me.”

Completely deadpan, Scott turned to face her. “Personally, I have been thinking of today as our three day anniversary.”

And then she really laughed, her full laugh that only Scott ever got out of her. His face broke into a grin before scooping her up in his arms. She was still shaking, laughing, as he kissed the top of her head.

“Sure Tess, we can do our own Christmas. But that doesn’t give me a whole lot of time.”

“Is it too soon? We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No, let’s do it. I think I actually have an idea. I’m just not sure if I can make it happen in time. And it means that I’m going to have to go out for a few hours tomorrow. Alone. Without you.”

“On our first weekend together? Maybe we should rethink this.” She ran her hands up his chest and down his arms. She pushed his arm band off as she went, revealing what had quickly become her favourite sight in the world. “And we don’t need to wear these at home.”

“Right,” he agreed, quickly pulling hers off too. They set the bands down out of the way. “I’m committed to this idea now though. You’re just going to have to find some way to occupy your time tomorrow morning without my company.”

They both sighed. They hadn’t actually been apart for more than five minutes since the night they got together.

“I suppose you were always going to leave me eventually.”

“Hey.” He gripped both her shoulders. Ran his hands up her neck. Buried his fingers in her hair. “Don’t even joke about that. Please.”

She tried to brush away the worry lines from his forehead with her thumbs. “I know love. I know. You’re not going anywhere. And neither am I.”

It took everything she had to stop herself from rising up on her toes and kissing him senseless. “We really need to have dinner though. My self-control is not going to last much longer.”

“Right. Dinner first. Please let this chicken cook quickly.”

 

Tessa tried to not be too antsy while she waited for Scott to get out of the shower. Her suitcase was open on the bed, and she knew she should be double checking that she had all her family’s Christmas presents packed, but she just couldn’t focus. She was too excited and nervous to see what he would think of her Christmas surprise for him.

She heard the water turn off and waited. Heard him open the shower door and waited. Waited thirty more seconds. And then, as casually as she could, exclaimed “Oh, dang it.”

“What T?” She hadn’t even spoken above a normal tone, and yet he responded immediately. He poked his head into the bedroom, water still dripping from his hair onto his face.

“I just realized I left a sweater at your place last week that I wanted to pack. Do you mind if I run over there real quick? I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll go with you, but just give me five minutes.”

“Okay. And then we’ll start our Christmas after.”

He disappeared back into the bathroom and Tessa couldn’t help but be pleased with how predictable he was.

They didn’t even bother to zip up their coats when they left her place. Walking briskly hand in hand, it wasn’t even a minute away. They stamped their feet on the doormat, and Scott held the front door open for Tessa to walk through first. He followed her up the stairs and then she stepped out of the way so he could unlock his front door.

“It’s probably in my laundry hamper, right?” he asked.

She didn’t respond, waiting for him to catch on.

Sure enough, he gasped in surprise. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around her from behind, taking in the view of his apartment from over her shoulder.

“When did you even have time to do this Tess?”

The boxes by the door were gone, as were the boxes by the couch and tv. The curtain rods no longer laid on the floor, instead hanging properly with soft grey curtains covering the windows. His signed Leafs jersey and other art were all up on the walls, evenly space and perfectly level. Even his bookshelf was tidied, with his former haphazard stacks replaced with neat rows. On the middle shelf was one of the only two things she had added to the apartment. A framed picture of them in Vancouver, matching the one she kept at home in London.

The other thing she had added, with only a bit of difficultly carrying it on her own, was a small Christmas tree. She’d plugged in the lights earlier so it shone a soft white light on the silver balls and bells she had decorated it with.

“During you game tonight. And I might have skipped yoga yesterday.”

His lips found her neck and she tilted her head out of his way, wrapping one hand into his hair.

Despite the distraction, she kept talking. “I figured you would never actually get around to unpacking. But I want us to feel at home in both our places.” Tentatively, she added, “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I love it Tess. Thank you.”

“I didn’t overstep?”

“You could never. And you’re right. I really wasn’t going to get around to unpacking. But this is better. Much better. It’s our place now.”

She could have stayed in his arms all night, but it seemed a little silly to do so standing in his entranceway, still wearing their boots.

“Should we go back to our other place?”

“For your not-gift? No, you got a tree and it looks so nice. Let’s stay here for a bit.”

A few minutes later, there were curled up under a plaid blanket on the couch. Her head on his shoulder, his arm keeping her close to his side.

“My turn?”

She hummed in agreement. “If you’re ready.”

His fingers traced over her mark as they so often did. She seriously considered moving so that she could reach his too, but she was just so cozy.

“You said it shouldn’t be a gift. So it’s not exactly a gift. It’s a question really.”

She turned her head so she could see his face, hold his gaze as he spoke.

“We have two years until Korea. It’s what we both want. That comes first. And I know we have only technically been together for two weeks, so I’m not asking you to marry me. So I’m not getting down on one knee. After eighteen years, I’m not even sure we need a wedding, though if you want one, I will marry you any day you want.”

She didn’t know where he was going with this, but she was pretty sure her heart was going to jump out of her chest. He shifted she he could take both her hands in his.

“Tess. I meant what I said. You’re it for me. You always have been and always will be. So my question is the same one I asked you before. Forever?”

“Forever.”

He kissed her left hand and then let it go, reaching into his jeans pocket.

“This isn’t a gift,” he said. “It’s a question”

He opened his hand and in the middle was a ring. Slowly, Tessa picked it up and held it up to the light. It was a rose gold band, but the band was made of consecutive maple leafs.

Ignoring the tears falling down her cheeks, she answered his question, slipping it onto her left ring finger. It fit perfectly.

“It’s not an engagement ring,” he said. “Not if you don’t want it to be.”

“It’s more,” she whispered. They didn’t need diamonds or a wedding. They were going to have forever.

 

[When Tessa asked him later in bed that night how he had got a ring custom made at Christmas time in 10 days, he told her it involved an exasperated jeweller with a wife who loves love stories… and a large bribe.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone was so nice after the last chapter with all your wonderful comments that I wrote you an extra fluffy, short, bonus chapter when I realized my timeline had taken them so close to Christmas anyways. This is not one of the two chapters I said I had planned, so those are still to come and will involve like an actual plot and stuff instead of this sappy whatever-this-is.


	8. Chapter 8

Scrolling through her checklist for the hundredth time, Tessa was sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, but there was no harm in checking again. Since she was waiting anyways. And had been waiting. For ten minutes. By the door. She mentally reaffirmed that yes, she did have three versions of each dress packed and the earrings to go with each. She did not need to open her suitcases again. Everything was ready.

Including, finally, Scott. He strolled out of their bedroom, suitcase in tow.

“All set Tess?”

“Almost, just one thing first.”

Scott raised one eyebrow in disbelief that Tessa would have left something that late.

She walked right up to him, grasped his hair with both hands, and tugged him down to meet her lips. He caught up with her instantly and spun her to push her up against the wall. He pressed one leg between hers and she moaned in response. She wrapped a leg behind him, using it to press him tighter against her.

But there was a flight to catch. And they really didn’t have time. So with an abundance of regret, Scott broke away and Tessa let him go.

“It’s going to be a long month without that,” she sighed, smoothing her hair back into place.

Scott grabbed their arm bands off the front hall table and handed her hers. Reluctantly, she put it on. Even more reluctantly, she slid off her maple leaf ring and placed it in its box in the table’s little drawer. Scott had already put on his Canada sweater and held hers for her as she slipped into it.

Tenderly, he gave her one more chaste kiss.

“Okay T, let’s go get our golds.”

Two years of hiding their relationship. That was the part of the price they paid in order to climb back on top of the podium. Despite whatever narrative the ISU wanted, they refused to let Sochi happen all over again. They trained harder. Longer. Smarter. Knowing that they needed to be absolutely flawless so that there was no possible way they couldn’t be given gold. If they slipped up just a little, they were certain it would be used as a reason to bump them down to silver, regardless of whether they were still better than their competition or not.

But as much as they knew an error could cost them their gold, a public relationship would sink their chances even quicker. And if anyone knew they were soulmates? Forget it. They’d never get asked a single question about their skating ever again. All the focus would be on their personal lives. And that would be used as an excuse for the judges to overlook them. To pass off their on ice connection not as the product of twenty years of hard work, but as the obvious result of being soulmates. If they dared showed their marks, no one would ever look at their feet as they skated ever again.

So with a last longing look at the drawer hiding it, Tessa left her ring behind and headed out the door.

 

It was Patch who told her first. It was enough. But she waited to hear it announced. First. Gold. It was theirs again.

And then she was in his arms. He plucked her right off the bench and she was exactly where she belonged. It was everything she wanted, everything she sacrificed for, and she finally had it with the only person she would ever want to share it with.

The only sour note was that as he dropped kisses on her, she had to restrain herself from returning them. She had to restrain herself ever since they left Seoul. And it was killing her. But she savoured what she could have, just a few moments in his arms, despite the whole world watching them.

They had a few minutes before the flower ceremony, but they couldn’t get away. They had people to greet and there was still a stadium full of cameras. Scott kept coughing and she made a mental note to make sure he got some cough syrup before they started the impending interviews.

She had to satisfy herself with taking his hand as their names were announced again and they stepped back onto the ice. As they stood on the podium, and she valiantly attempted to hold back her tears, Scott grounded her to the moment. His hand caressing her neck as she took in the look of love and triumph in his eyes – that was what she knew she was going to remember decades from then. Being on top of the world with him.

When it was all said and done, as they took their skates off backstage, Tessa took a moment to switch gears. To compartmentalize. While she wanted to live in the thrill of the moment, the interviews were going to start immediately. She had to switch her brain, from skating to media training, and put on her other game face.

“I think we should tone it down now.”

“Tone what down?”

“You know…” she trailed off, trying to get out of saying it outright. Scott was giving her his deeply unimpressed face. He was going to make her say it. “The touching. The kissing. In public. We aren’t selling a love story to the judges anymore. Now we just need to get through the next few days of cameras before we can get our private life back.”

“You mean me. I should tone it down.” His tone killed her. The coldness of it was such a shock after their last hour of bliss.

Attempting to sooth him, she briefly squeezed his arm. “I mean both of us. We both need to be careful, like we prepared for in media prep.”

“You’ve never had a problem with the media Tess. You meant me.” He turned all his attention back to drying his blades thoroughly.

She wanted to tell him that he was wrong. But they had agreed when they got together to stop lying to each other. So she said nothing.

As she zipped up her bag, Scott started coughing again.

“Are you feeling okay? Do you have any medicine with you?”

“I’m fine.” He didn’t even look over at her.

“I think I might have some cough drops in my bag. I can look for them.”

He refused to give in to her attempt to go back to normal. “I said I’m fine Tess.”

Marie France came over to them just then, ending any chance she had of trying to apologize or move on. The world wanted to see their ice dance champions so their moment was up. Press time.

They had seen it coming this time around. In Vancouver, it had been one interviewer. Just one, who asked if they were soulmates. And Tessa had been lived. In PyeongChang, it was nearly everyone. In eight years, whatever rules of journalistic professionalism seemed to have gone out the window. But Tessa didn’t care. At first.

Unlike when she had been blindsided in Vancouver, she was prepped for the question. Surprisingly, her now practiced answer was almost the same as what she had made up on the spot eight years earlier. Ignore the question and redirect. “We’re so glad people are invested in the stories we tell” and “We have worked so hard on our bond, on our connection, over these last twenty years.” So she could do it without losing her cool this time. For her, it was okay.

For Scott on the other hand, it was not. Not okay at all. She knew he wasn’t feeling great with the exhaustion and the illness. But they had no choice. They had days of interviews to get through. It wore on him. Despite everything, he bristled every time the question came up. And she couldn’t do anything about it. Couldn’t reach out and reassure him without ruining their attempts at avoiding the question.

And outside of the interviews, they still didn’t get any time to themselves. At Canada House, there were cell phones out everywhere. There was no chance that they could sneak out like 8 years ago with a bottle of whiskey for a night alone. Not without the internet exploding with photos. Then, during the following days, there were gala practices to attend and other sports to watch and people and athletes everywhere never giving them a real moment alone. They had agreed in advance to not bother trying to sleep in the same room. It was too risky that someone would say something. And the twin beds were tiny anyways. But despite the small space, Tessa felt a huge absence next to her every night as she tried, and often failed, to fall asleep.

 

It only got worse as the days went on. Scott did exactly as she had asked and toned it down. He toned it way down. The touching and the kissing but also the talking and the smiling and the joking. And to just add to the problems, Tessa felt she was starting to catch whatever he had. So by the time they flew home to Canada, they were both sick and exhausted and barely speaking. And Tessa could never find a private time to attempt to fix it before they parted at the London airport to go spend quality time with their own families. She spent that time bedridden and miserable, until she had to leave for Toronto. A change in scenery meant a new place to be sad without him while she did her own sponsorships.

When he joined her in Toronto for a few joint press days, it didn’t get any better. Whatever miscommunications they had had at the end of Korea had simmered while they were at home with their families. And that only made it worse. Things only ever got worse when they failed to communicate. As soon as Tessa opened her mouth to try and talk, Scott cut her off.

“Can we just get through this and talk when we get home?”

He seemed beaten down. Just like she felt. So Tessa just gave him what he wanted and nodded without a fuss.

“Sure.” A few more days of misery it was.

 

The flight from Toronto to Montreal was thankfully short given the silence between them. They had talked about taking the train back, but since her car was in long term airport parking anyways they decided to fly. And it was a good thing. Tessa didn’t think she could have survived a five hour train ride with this chasm between them. Unlike the flights back from Korea, there was no one waiting to greet them at the airport. They didn’t need their media smiles or canned answers. They got to just walk out of the airport in silence. Which Tessa was beginning to think was worse. In that moment, she’d go through another 10 interviews if it meant she could just hear Scott string together more than the clipped answers he was giving her whenever she tried to talk. She missed him even though he was sitting in her passenger seat just inches away.

She pulled into her parking spot and Scott got out of the car before she even shut off the engine. He went to the trunk and grabbed both their suitcases, but thankfully waited for her to get out of the car and didn’t walk away without her. She shouldn’t have been so relieved at such a little thing, just him waiting for her, but she was. He followed her up and into the apartment. While he carried their bags directly into their bedroom, Tessa took off her shoes and immediately went to the drawer in the little hall table.

It was by far the longest she had been without her ring in the last two years. She didn’t wear it in public, so she took it off every day. But normally she got to put it back on every evening when they came home. If they had switched apartments that night, she always made a quick stop to pick it up. She even wore it at night while they slept just so she could have a few more hours with it to make up for all the hours she went without. So she took a moment to take it in before she put it on. She knew every line, every detail of each leaf, but it felt like forever since she had seen it. It was almost like the first night he gave it to her all over as she examined it. When she slipped it back on her finger, her hand finally felt whole again.

She realized Scott had come back and was watching her with inexplicably sad eyes. Not allowing herself to overthink it, she closed the distance between them and threw her arms around his neck. He responded immediately, arms pressing her tight against him.

“Can we please just have a few minutes before we have whatever fight we’re about to have? Like this?”

“Sure Tess,” he whispered. And she already felt better. It was the softest tone she had heard out of him in over a week. She melted into him. Tangled her hands in his hair. Nuzzled her face into his neck. He let his hands drift all over her back and neck and hips in a way he hadn’t got to hold her in weeks. Their breathing synced for the first time since before their gala performance.

When they finally broke apart, they ended up at the dining table as neutral territory for their talk. Tessa refused to let go of his hand, keeping their linked fingers in full view sitting on top of the table between them.

“I think you should go first,” she said. “I’m sorry that I asked you to cut back on the public affection, but I’m pretty sure there is more going on here than that, but I really don’t know what it is.”

“Yeah.” He ran his unoccupied hand across his face, unsure how to begin. “Yeah. I’m sorry. It was that. But it was more. I love you – ”

Tessa tried to cut in and reaffirm the same, but he shook his head to cut her off.

“And I know you love me. But somehow it just felt like we had gone back in time. Before us. The us from the past two years. I know you were being the smart one, thinking of media strategies, and that we had agreed on it all together ahead of time. But I just need you so much, and it sometimes feels like you don’t need me back the same way. Which is probably actually healthier. Because not being able to touch you for the past few weeks, it felt like all those years all over again.

“These two years of everything have felt like a dream. But before that was years of us being idiots. Nine years Tess. Nine whole years that I thought you understood our mark and didn’t want me back. And I thought I was over it, but apparently I’m not. And I guess you triggered it when you said we didn’t need to sell a love story anymore. Even though I know what you meant, it just ate away at me. Compound that with the damn interviews, where they all fucking ask if we're soulmates and we are, but I couldn’t tell them. It was just like in Vancouver, when I knew and didn’t say anything.

“It ended up feeling like this was all just for the comeback and that one day I’m going to wake up and you won’t be there and it will all be over. And I did have to wake up without you. I couldn’t hold you or kiss you and it made it worse. It got worse every day. And that’s not your fault, I know. I shut down. I got totally wrapped up in my own head and couldn’t get out of it. I’m sorry.”

Tessa had no idea what to say. She had known something bigger was wrong, but had no idea it was that big. That he questioned their relationship and her commitment to it, even if he recognized that those thoughts were based on old insecurities and not their current life. She needed to process. To think before she responded. She needed more information.

“And how are you feeling now?” She wasn’t sure the answer was going to be good, but she needed to know.

“Honestly? I started to feel better as soon as I watched you put your ring back on. More so when you hugged me. It’s like it’s all seeping away just from you holding my hand now. I just need to physically know that you’re with me and somehow it's all okay.”

“But I can’t always be holding you Scott.” She clasped her other hand over their joined hands to emphasize this was not one of those moments. “I’ll be with you forever, but there are going to be times that we can’t be physically together. Especially when you start coaching and travelling. So we need a plan. Because I don’t think I can handle it if you check out on me again. It’s been so lonely and wretched for me. Not even just the sleeping apart, but the not talking. I need you too. So much. And I don’t want you to feel like that either. I never even guessed you were still carrying that around.”

“I should have talked to you. It was a mistake. But it really is getting better as the years go by. This was just a setback I’m sure. It’s just taking more time than I expected to forget how I felt for so long. But it’s going to be okay.” He stroked her hair, calming them both. “I know I have you. And the press appearances and the public stuff is hard for me, but I know privacy is important to you. It is to me too. The media circus would be a different type of terrible if they knew, and I don’t want that either.”

“We need a plan,” she reiterated. “What helps you the most? What can I do?”

“You don’t need to do anything special. Just holding you. Seeing your mark and ring. Actually talking with you. It’s all I need. That and time. As much time as I can get with you.”

Tessa’s brain raced, taking in what he was saying and pairing it up with what she had been considering for months.

“Okay, so my ring helps, right? When you gave it to me, you said it wasn’t an engagement ring if I didn’t want it to be. Well, what if I want it to be now?”

Scott’s mouth literally fell open before quickly breaking into a huge grin transforming his whole face.

“You want to get married?”

“Yeah, I do.”

They both abandoned their chairs to come together over the middle of the table. For the first time in weeks, she got to kiss him properly. She’d missed him so much. She held on to him by his neck and climbed up onto the table. Without breaking away from him, she crawled across so that more than just their lips could be joined.

He swept her up into his arms, bridal style, and looked down at her. “We’re getting married.”

“We’re getting married,” she affirmed. She stretched up to kiss him, but it didn’t seem like enough. Scott had the same thought and started walking, carrying her to their bedroom.

 

An hour later, Scott sat up against their pillows while she laid at his side. Her head rested on his chest, allowing her to feel his heart beat. She lazily traced swirls over his stomach, luxuriating in the ability to run her hands over him again as much as she wanted after such a long drought. He kept hold of her left hand, slowly kissing every inch of it, but paying particular attention to her ring finger.

“We got distracted before we could finish making a plan,” she said.

He ran a finger down her neck, trailing it down her chest. “A good distracted though.”

She hummed in agreement. “But I kind of have a plan in mind.”

“Yeah?”

“So we’re getting married and –”

“We are getting married,” he cut her off, reiterating her words with such a tone of awe.

“Yes, love. But wedding planning takes time. And we also don’t want the media anywhere near our wedding, right?”

“Right.” She could feel him nodding with his whole body.

“And we’re busy anyways for the next while touring. Too busy to plan a wedding. So maybe we just get through the next six months and let everything die down. And then we announce our engagement to our families and start wedding planning. It will take at least a year for that.”

“A year?”

“I swear. A year. But that leaves us with a fall wedding. I’m not sure I love that. What do you think?”

“I’d like it to be outdoors, so summer is probably better. I can wait.”

“Can you? We get married a little over two years from now? It’s technically a long engagement, but since we are already fully committed to forever, I’m not sure that matters.”

“It’s going to happen. It’s okay if it takes a while so we get it right.”

“Good. And then when we tell our families this fall, I think I should just start wearing my ring all the time. It’ll be after tour season and far enough from the Olympics that I think we can probably fly under the radar for a while. And whenever people figure it out, we can confirm it if we want.”

“But we can skip the interviews, right?”

“We can turn them all down if anyone even still cares about us by then.”

He leaned down to nuzzle his head against hers. “I can’t believe we are getting married. I know we made our vows to each other two years ago, and we're already beyond just engaged, but still.”

Tessa laughed, joyful from how happy he was. How happy she was too. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. But we were too busy with Korea for me to bother bringing it up sooner.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for twenty years,” he murmured into her shoulder.

“And yet you never asked,” she teased.

“My biggest mistake,” he said. “Not that I think anyone would have taken us being engaged seriously at 7 and 9.”

“Probably not.” The last two hours had fixed basically everything wrong since Korea for her, but she wanted to make sure. “So we have a plan. Six more months of hiding our relationship, and then we start wedding planning. And we communicate better in the meantime. Keep taking separate hotel rooms, but sleeping in the same one, rumours be damned. Is that going to be enough to help you through?”

“Yeah, I can survive. Just six months until we announce the engagement. But what do you think about our marks. Do we show them off?”

“No, I want to keep the arm bands.”

“Why?” Tess looked up but Scott’s face was wiped clean. She couldn’t tell if he was going to fight her on this.

“I want our marks to just be ours. Yours and mine. We share enough with them. With everyone. The world will get to see we’re living our own happily ever after, but they don’t need to know that we’re also soulmates.”

“I agree.”

“Really?” Tessa tried not to look to visibly relieved. Glad they were finally back on the same page and in agreement.

“Yeah, I mean can you imagine the photo shoots they would make us do? You just know Skate Canada would suddenly inexplicably be making tank tops, despite no one ever going sleeveless at an ice rink. All so they can take promotional shots of our marks. Any press we would ever do would probably have the heat turned up in the building just to force us to show them off. I don’t want that. They’re ours. And I won’t let them be cheapened by being commercialized.”

“Oh god, you’re right. I didn’t even think of that. They would totally make Skate Canada tanks.” She giggled at the mental image of the Canadian skaters shivering in rinks while filming interviews in tank tops.

“Can you please bring your ring to Japan this time?” He brushed his fingers around the ring as he spoke. “Even if you don’t wear it anywhere but the hotel room. I just like to see it. A reminder that despite all the press, you really are with me.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing. I can’t go weeks without it again. My hand just feels wrong.”

She gazed at their joined hands lying on top of her stomach. Everything was just as it should be in that moment. The exhaustion of everything was starting to hit her and she let her eyes drift shut.

“We really did it T,” he said softly.

She didn’t know if he was talking about the comeback, or the medals, or sorting out their relationship. It didn’t matter. To all of it, he was right.

“We really did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this damn chapter is finally done. I revised the entire outline of the chapter like 4 times and despite being shorter than last chapter, it took forever to write. /end{bitching}
> 
> Okay, so you can presumably tell, we are nearing the end here. I have 1.5 chapters roughly outlined meaning most likely 1 or 2 more chapters depending on if I combine them or not. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (even if it was maybe not what you expected. I certainly didn't intend to add so much angst but things happen. Oops). Take care y'all <3
> 
> Friendly reminder that you can find me over here: https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

“Can you come zip me up?”

She really didn’t need him to zip her up. Rarely was a dress actually so constricting that she couldn’t manage the zipper herself. But rather than cranking her arm around in its socket, it was much more pleasant to have Scott do it.

“Sure thing.”

She admired him in the mirror as he came up behind her. He was just in shorts and a t-shirt, with just a silver hint from the bottom of his maple leaf showing below the sleeve. They weren’t going anywhere particularly nice since it was his restaurant pick, which was why she had picked a simpler sundress instead of getting all dressed up. It was Scott’s favourite dress. Not that he had ever said that, but she noticed how bad he was at tearing his gaze away from the cut outs whenever she wore it, so she assumed it could be counted as his favourite.

He gently swept all her hair over her shoulder, kissing her the back of her now exposed neck. His fingers traced her spine all the way down until he reached the zipper. He zipped her up and then smoothed down her dress for good measure, gratuitously running over her every curve. He lingered on the cut outs, his fingers brushing her exposed skin. Yes, it was much better to have Scott help her get dressed.

“Thanks love.” She reached back and slid her hand around his mark, pushing his sleeve out of the way. “I just need my arm band and then I’m ready whenever you are.”

“I’ll go grab them for us,” he said, but didn’t move. She didn’t let go either, letting her fingers glide back and forth across the lines. His right hand came to rest on her hip and she covered his hand with her own, intertwining their fingers. He met her eyes in the mirror and smiled back at her. Retirement was so much better this time around.

 

They took Tessa’s car to dinner. She drove one handed most of the way, glad she drove an automatic so that she didn’t need to let go of Scott. Parking was, as usual, a disaster, meaning she ended up on a street several blocks away from the pub they were headed to. She had to wait until there was a break in traffic so she could get out and hurry off of the road. Scott held out a hand for her while she stepped up onto the sidewalk. She took his hand, but expected him to let go as soon as she was out of the street.

He didn’t. Instead his other hand quickly covered the top of her hand.

“T, you forgot.”

“I didn’t forget.”

He looked to her for further explanation.

“It’s just a few extra days. I know we don’t do gifts, but this isn’t exactly a gift.”

“Oh yes it is.”

His lips met hers and she spared quick thought for the mess her lipstick was about to be before she let herself get swept away in the moment. Somewhat. They were very much in public in the middle of Montreal, with cars and people all around them. She restrained herself from latching onto his hair and settled for her arms around his neck. But she didn’t resist or pull back when he deepened the kiss. She met him with equal passion, relieved that he was onboard with her unilateral decision.

They’d planned it so they would arrive home exactly six months from the official start of their engagement. Tessa had called Scott’s mom and asked if she would be willing to throw a belated birthday party for him. Alma quickly agreed and Tessa had her whole family added to the guest list. Nothing about that was particularly unusual, so they were pretty sure their families didn’t know about the announcement they planned to make. She was risking blowing all that right now if anyone recognized them and posted anything online. She didn’t care.

When they parted for air, she nuzzled her nose against his. “Happy birthday Scott.”

He kissed her again. Then his grip on her hips shifted and instinct from years of training made her grab his shoulders just in time. He spun her around, in the middle of the sidewalk, just like one of their lifts. She automatically extended her legs and pointed her toes. His whole face was lit up and she was pretty sure hers matched. But it didn’t occur to either of them that heels are not at all like skates. With absolutely nothing holding her shoes onto her feet, first one and then the other flew off. Tessa gasped the moment the first shoe left her foot and Scott caught on when her heel smacked against the brick storefront beside them.

She burst into a fit of giggles. Scott placed her back on the ground and went to collect her shoes for her while she stood gingerly in bare feet on the cement. He knelt down and she let him pick up each foot and slide them back into her heels.

“Sorry Tess,” he murmured.

Still laughing, she brushed her fingers through his hair, tucking what she could behind his ear as he stood back up.

“It’s fine,” she assured him, giving him a quick kiss. But then she took in the sight of his mouth, with her lipstick all around it. She ran her thumb over the worst of it. “We do need to fix this though.”

She fished her Kleenex out of her purse, handing one to him and taking one for herself. She pulled out her compact mirror while Scott used the reflection in her car window.

“I’m not used to having to worry about smudging lipstick in public anymore,” she said. She tried to not ruin her foundation too much as she removed the wayward red marks around her mouth. “I’m going to have to switch to lip stain or something.”

Scott straightened up as she began reapplying her lipstick. “I don’t know what that is, but if it means more kissing then I’m all for it.”

“In general, yes. But let’s go have you birthday dinner right now.”

He took her hand with her pinky between his index and middle fingers, their normal hold. But she was extra aware of her ring pressed against the side of his finger. She highly doubted as they walked down the street that anyone was looking closely enough at their hands to even notice her ring. Even if they did, they probably just looked like any other engaged couple to anyone except potential skating fans. But to her, it was the only thing she could think about. How this was them in public as a couple for the very first time. The first time she had worn her ring outside.

She really didn’t think this could count as a proper birthday gift to him, given that it was really a gift to herself. To get to finally hold his hand and take him to dinner and sit on the same side of the booth and have his arm draped around her and for once not have to worry about anyone misconstruing their relationship. Because they were together and after almost three years it wasn’t a secret anymore. It was a gift to both of them.

 

Although she paid extra close attention to Twitter and Instagram in the following days, nothing leaked before they made it home to London. She was pretty sure a couple young women had recognized them at dinner one night, but they hadn’t interrupted them or asked for photos, and they didn’t seem to have posted about it. She was glad that despite her birthday surprise for Scott, the plan for their families was still on track.

When they made it to Scott’s house, Tessa didn’t even get to take her shoes off before the ring was noticed. Then there was screaming and hugging and kissing and it was another ten minutes before Tessa actually got her shoes off and could move away from the entranceway. But their families also understood their desire for privacy, and none of them told anyone outside of their close circle of family and friends.

In the end, it took until October for anyone in the world at large to notice. Sure the skaters had talked amongst themselves, but the media and social media didn’t figure it out until Tessa showed up to a photo shoot wearing her ring. She took it off for the actual shoot, but behind the scenes videos were posted that showed her wearing it. Her Instagram notifications were immediately flooded. Most laughably to her were the people questioning who she was engaged to. As if she could have been hiding some other guy other than Scott. She was good at keeping her life private, but not that good.

“Should we take pity on them?” she asked.

They were curled up on his couch, having a quiet night in that she hadn’t particularly expected to end up going this way. Scott read all the comments with her as she scrolled through them.

“As much as I don’t really want to comment, I would rather I didn’t have to read any gossip pieces speculating about who your secret mystery man is.”

“Okay, how do you want to do it then?”

Scott looked at her like she had lost her mind. “You are asking me about social media? You think I have some press strategy? How can I be marrying someone who knows me so little?”

She tried not to roll her eyes at his dramatics. “Yes, I’m so silly for thinking my fiancé might have some opinion on our engagement announcement.”

“Oh god, please can we not do anything as formal as an engagement announcement? That sounds like something for stuffy people.”

“See, you do have an opinion,” she elbowed him lightly. “How about a photo of us?”

“I don’t really want to take one right now.” He ruffled his hair and gestured down at his sweats.

“Fair enough. Okay, how about I just post a photo of my ring and tag you in it?”

“Is that a thing that people do?”

“Yes love, it is.”

“Sure, whatever you think is best.”

She sat up and looked around the room, pondering where the best lighting was. It was already dark out so natural light wasn’t an option, but luckily filters existed. Scott massaged her shoulders as she considered her options. She needed a backdrop of some sort. She didn’t really want to post just a photo of her hand. Luckily, she had just painted her nails yesterday so they weren’t chipped yet.

“Okay, I think I know what I should do. Can you turn on like all the lamps and lights?”

Scott’s tv hung above the fireplace on the wall, but Tessa had still tucked mementos on the corners of the mantel. She went to the bookcase and picked up the picture of them in Vancouver on the podium. Carrying it over to the mantel, she set it beside the little white tiger from PyeongChang. Holding up her hand next to them, she considered the arrangement. The tiger needed to be pulled a little more to the side.

Scott came up and slipped his arms around her. “Isn’t that kind of bragging? Reminding everyone of our Olympic medals.”

“Are we not allowed to brag? I could post a picture of the ring while I try to hold all five medals?”

“Oh God, Tess.” He kissed the side of her head. “Please don’t.”

“No, this is good,” she explained. “This way when CBC and CTV and whoever picks it up, people actually remember who we are. Then they don’t need to go pulling old archive photos.”

“Something tells me eTalk is going to do that anyway.”

“Oh everyone will, but still. It’s immediately recognizable as us without us having to take a photo now or me looking for a random skating photo that I haven’t already posted before.”

She rested her hand on the mantel, fingers brushing the picture frame, and snapped a bunch of photos. Handing Scott the picture to put back in its rightful place, she started turning off all the lamps again. They settled back on the couch and she flicked through photos and filters until she was satisfied. Confronted with the caption box, she chewed her bottom lip.

“How about ‘Yes, we’re together. No interview requests please.’? You know, get all the important info out in one go?”

“Not helpful,” she muttered. “How about…” She typed in her idea and angled her phone to show Scott for his approval.

_Twenty one years behind us. Forever ahead of us._

He traced her jaw, encouraging her to tilt her head up towards him. “Yeah,” he murmured. “That sounds pretty good.” He leaned forward and captured her bottom lip, nipping at it softly.

It sounded very good to her. She broke away just long enough to hit send and then turned off her phone for the night.

 

 

***

 

 

Tessa had been right when she told Scott that there was no chance a wedding could be planned in under a year. As it was, twenty months seemed rushed. But everything got done, the day arrived, and thanks to meticulous planning Tessa was able to relax and enjoy it without worrying too much about logistics. Even the weather had cooperated with a bright, sunny, late May day making it worthwhile to wait the extra months for a late spring wedding ceremony outdoors.

From her seat at the head table at the reception, Tessa could look out and see everyone they loved gathered in one room. That is, she could have it she looked up, however she was finding it incredibly difficult to look up from the table top. Scott had moved his chair as close to hers as possible and his left hand rested on the table between them. She had mostly covered his hand with her own left hand, making sure she could see both of their rings at once.

Somehow despite having designed the rings and picked them up a month ago, they were still the most shocking part of the day. Actually seeing them on their hands. Wedding bands. Because they were married. Actually married.

They had decided on having a matching design, but not identical rings. Scott’s was thicker and platinum. Tessa’s was gold with diamonds inlaid all around. But both were made of two distinct strands, separated by a deep groove so that they looked like two identical parallel circles, just like their marks. It was their little way of making it easier to keep their marks covered in public, having a visible reminder of them on each of their hands. And it was working since Tessa could not stop staring.

“Tess,” Scott whispered against her ear. “Pay attention. You’re missing how cute we were.”

One of the things about having grown up skating together was that it turned into an awful lot of fodder for a slideshow at a wedding. Tessa’s sister and Scott’s mom had apparently colluded, pooling their decades of photos, to make one massive PowerPoint spanning their entire lives. Past a few baby and toddler photos, they had enough of Tessa and Scott together that the room had been collectively “aww”-ing for the last five minutes.

She gave Scott a quick peck and snuggled up against him, turning her attention back to the photos. There didn’t seem to any real organization to the order, switching between senior competition photos, childhood family vacations, and official engagement photos.

“Hey,” Tessa tapped Scott’s hand without taking her eyes off the screen. “Have you seen that photo before?”

“No.”

“Do you remember that?”

“I don’t.” He turned his hand over so he could squeeze her hand, letting her know that he understood why she was asking.

The slideshow finished a minute later and after a round of applause, Tessa went and hugged her sister, thanking her.

“Hey, there was a photo there near the end of Scott and I around ages 10 or 11. Us at a lake, looks like it was Canada day?”

“Yeah, I know the one,” Jordan replied.

“Could you send me a copy of it?”

“Sure thing, it’ll be waiting for you when you get back from your honeymoon.”

 

They spent their honeymoon in the south of France in the countryside, just them. And when they got back, Tessa immediately went through their mail until she found the envelope from her sister. Then she grabbed her not-yet-unpacked carry-on bag and took out the silver picture frame she had found in a little shop in the village where they had stayed. She gently removed the layers of tissue paper she had used for safe travelling and opened the back. She slid in the picture, fastened the back, and flipped it over to admire it.

Heading into the bedroom, Scott was sitting on the floor unpacking already. She reached down and hauled him up with one hand.

“Where do you think I should put this?” she asked.

Scott looked at the picture of them and smiled. “I still can’t believe that happened and neither of us even remember it.”

“Me either.”

“What do you have planned for the mantel? I think this deserves a prominent place.”

“I hadn’t picked anything yet, so let’s try it.”

They had taken possession of their new house just a week before the wedding. And then they left right away from London for their honeymoon without coming back to Montreal first. There had been hardly time to unpack anything, let alone worry about what décor would go where. The hallways were still a minefield of boxes that Tessa knew she needed to unpack soon or they would annoy her to no end. But this seemed like a good piece to start with, making the house into their home.

She placed the picture right in the centre of the mantel and then stepped back by Scott’s side to admire it. It was too small to be there on its own, but she would add wedding and Vancouver and PyeongChang photos to keep it company soon enough. She rested her head on Scott’s shoulder as his arm wrapped around her waist. She reached over and took his far hand in hers.

“Do you think – ”

“What Tess?”

“Nothing, it’s silly.”

He didn’t say anything. Just kissed the top of her head and turned back to the photo.

“Do you think,” she started again. “That if I had just seen this photo earlier, remembered this day, maybe I would have figured it out sooner? And we wouldn’t have wasted so many years?”

Scott immediately spun her to face him. “It doesn’t matter Tess.” He said it with such conviction that she wanted to believe him.

“But look at us.” She gestured to the frame, but neither of them turned to look at it. Instead, he brushed his thumb over her cheek and drew her closer to him. “It’s so obvious there. And sometimes I just feel like I wasted so much time, being too afraid to be with you. But maybe, if I had seen this, I would have known and we could have got those years back.”

“That’s not how it works Tess. It’s not your fault, all those years. You were scared and so was I. It’s not your fault for not admitting your feelings earlier. I didn’t say anything sooner either and I actually knew we were soulmates. We can’t change anything now anyways. And it doesn’t matter. We sorted it out in the end. We’re married T. We’re married now and we’ll be together tomorrow and the day after and the day after that too. Don’t play the ‘what if’ game. It won’t do you any good. Just be with me now, okay?”

She sunk into him, with her arms around his waist and her head tucked into his shoulder. He gently rubbed circles on her back, guiding her to take deep breaths with him.

“You’re right,” she said, without moving.

“Occasionally.” She could hear him smirking, even if she couldn’t see it.

“The universe is weird. It gave us to each other so young, and yet it took us so long still to figure it all out.”

“But that’s just it. We were so young. Too young really. And we still had each other the whole time. We didn’t really miss out on all that much if you think about it. You were still my best friend through everything.”

He was right again. But instead of telling him, she kissed him. Long and slow, savouring the forever they still had in front of them. Soon, hands were roaming. Arm bands and shirts were being tossed on the ground. They made their way back to their bedroom away from the newly framed photo.

The only thing that had been missing from their wedding was photos with their marks showing. It wasn’t exactly a regret that she had, that they hadn’t taken any. Since there was no practical way for Scott to have his visible given tuxes and dress shirts, they had agreed she should keep hers covered too. So while they didn’t have any of the final wedding photos yet, even when they did there would be no sign of their marks.

The photo on the mantel showed young Tessa and young Scott sitting on the side of a dock in their bathing suits smiling at the camera. Both of them had temporary tattoos on their upper arms. Maple leafs for Canada day. It was as close as they had to a photo of them and their marks, and it was from at least six years before Scott got his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! We have reached the end! The first note I wrote in my outline for this chapter was "Epilogue of fluff?" and yeah I think that is basically what I managed.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed my little au. All the kudos and comments you guys have left have been amazing and the number of subscriptions and bookmarks is frankly overwhelming. You are all wonderful. Internet hugs and kisses to any of y'all you want them. xoxo
> 
> Take care! <3
> 
> If you are looking for me, I can be found on tumblr with asks and messages always open:  
> https://obviouslynotadragon.tumblr.com/  
> (And to close out my first note on this fic - yeah, I'm still very sorry for writing RPF 30,000 words later. But fuck it.)


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